Knowledge

 /

ArcaMax

Today's Word "Kibosh"

on

Published in Vocabulary

kibosh \KI-bahsh or ki-BAHSH\ (noun) - 1 : (Slang) A restraining element; something that stops or halts something else. 2 : (Slang) Nonsense; palaver.

"Jasmine had an idea for a weekend getaway, but her husband's plans to go fishing put the kibosh on her scheme."

 

Etymology is unsettled, but probably not from Yiddish or Anglo-Hebrew "kye b(r)osh" that literally means "eighteen British-coins" in Yiddish. It is hard to see the semantic connection here. The word first emerged in England around 1836 when it appeared in Charles Dickens' "Sketches by Boz": "'Hoo-roar,' ejaculates a pot-boy in a parenthesis, 'put the kye-bosk on her, Mary.'" More likely, "kibosh" is a corruption of "caboche" [ke-'bahsh], a verbal variant of "cabbage" which means to decapitate (a deer) right behind the horns. "Caboche" is a term of British heraldry ("stag's head caboched (or cabossed) on a field of gold").


 

More Vocabulary

Today's Word "profligate"

Vocabulary /

profligate \ PROF-luh-guht; -gayt \ (adjective) - 1 : Openly and shamelessly immoral; dissipated; dissolute. 2 : Recklessly wasteful.

(noun) - A profligate person.

"Both Curtiss and Feldmar agreed that after the birth ...Read More

Today's Word "rivulet"

Vocabulary /

rivulet \ RIV-yuh-lut \ (noun) - A small stream or brook; a streamlet.

"After two minutes in the steam chamber, sweat began to flow in rivulets from every pore in my body, dripping steadily from my ...Read More

Today's Word "putsch"

Vocabulary /

putsch \ PUCH ('u' as in 'push') \ (noun) - (Sometimes capitalized) A secretly planned and suddenly executed attempt to overthrow a government.

"Hitler operated from Munich where he enjoyed a fair degree of ...Read More

Today's Word "trice"

Vocabulary /

trice \ TRYS \ (noun) - A very short time; an instant; a moment; -- used chiefly in the phrase "in a trice."

"There is no reason to doubt Alma here since so many other witnesses over the years tell ...Read More

Today's Word "abecedarian"

Vocabulary /

abecedarian \ ay-bee-see-DAIR-ee-uhn \ (noun) - 1 : One who is learning the alphabet; hence, a beginner. 2 : One engaged in teaching the alphabet.

(adjective) - 1 : Pertaining to the letters of the alphabet. 2 : Arranged...Read More

Today's Word "toper"

Vocabulary /

toper \ TOH-puhr \ (noun) - One who drinks frequently or to excess.

"But there remains a core of bottom-line voters to whom the promise of tax cuts is as seductive as gin to a toper. -- David Nyhan, ...Read More

Comments

blog comments powered by Disqus

 

Related Channels

Danny Seo

EcoTips
By Danny Seo
Rob Kyff

The Word Guy
By Rob Kyff

Comics

Jeff Danziger Get Fuzzy Mike Beckom Andy Capp Drew Sheneman For Better or For Worse
See more