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A reader asks for the origin of the expression ‘putting the kibosh’ on something or other—meaning stopping whatever it is.
‘Kibosh’ is an interesting word, and the experts are uncertain where it comes from.
It’s first recorded by Dickens in one of his Sketches by Boz in 1839, and it meant then what it means now—to put an end to something.
One suggestion is that ‘kibosh’ comes from a Yiddish word meaning 18 pence (or one and sixpence—about 15 cents in today’s money).
The suggestion here is that bidders at small auctions (early in the 19th century) would ‘put the kibosh’ on other bidders—forcing them out—by jumping their bids to one and sixpence.
However, as the Oxford points out, no Yiddish source word has yet been found.
But American lexicographer Robert Hendrickson thinks ‘kibosh’ comes not from Yiddish but from the Irish—from a Gaelic phrase meaning (literally) the ‘cap of death.’
This odd notion, says the Oxford, is variously said to denote the head covering worn by a judge when pronouncing a death sentence, or possibly the hood used at executions, or perhaps the final item of clothing to be put on a body before a wake and burial, or even some form of torture implement.
As I say, the experts can’t agree—slang expert Jonathan Green prefers the Yiddish theory, while Leo Rosten (in his book on Yiddish) disagrees.
And while they argue, the Oxford has yet another suggestion entirely.
Some early uses, they say. suggest that ‘kibosh’ may originally have been ‘a physical object, used for striking, and the word has therefore been suggested to name an Arabic weapon (called a kirbas), meaning a kind of whip used for judicial punishment.’
Suddenly ‘putting the kibosh’ on someone seems rather grimmer and more brutal!
The Oxford goes on to say it may come from an Ottoman Turkish word.
If so, they comment, it may have been borrowed in London from immigrants or from those who served in the military in the Near East.
Confused?
Well, trying to track down the origins of slightly odd words that are now part of the English language can be like trying to find your way through a maze!
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