• kibosh •
Pronunciation: kai-bahsh • Hear it!
Part of Speech: Noun
Meaning: (Slang) The permanent ending of something, making it impossible, as a heavy downpour can put the kibosh on a baseball game.
Notes: Today's Good Word is more a word of the spoken vernacular than of written English. For that reason, it's spelling has varied quite a bit over the decades. Beginning with kye-bosk (see Word History), it has been spelled kyebosh, kye-bosh, and kybosh. Everyone generally agrees now on the spelling we are using, though some dictionaries accept kybosh as a variant.
In Play: Today's word is almost always heard in the idiomatic phrase, "put the kibosh on" something; however, it can be used outside this phrase: "If mom finds out we are planning a weekend at the shore, all our plans will get the old kibosh." The noun can also be used as a verb meaning "to end something permanently", as in "Greta Mae kiboshed the wedding plans when she learned that Archie was on Viagra."
Word History: Today's Good Word is of mysterious origin. It first appeared as kye-bosk in 1836 in the story 'Seven Dials' in Charles Dickens's Sketches by Boz. Although it looks Yiddish, the date of its origin makes a Yiddish source highly unlikely. A possible source is Irish caip bháis "cap of death", the reference of which would be unclear in this etymology: a judge's hat or a method of execution used by the British military? (We hope no one ever puts the kibosh on the flow of the Good Words like this one that we receive from Curtis Simple.)
KIBOSH
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KIBOSH
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Dads and 'Kibosh'
I love it when someone writes to tell us that one of our words brought back memories of a loved one. 'Discombobulate' brought us two: one that reminded a reader of her grandfather and another whom it reminded of her father--and she is 75 years old.
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Re: KIBOSH
Already posted a query elsewhere on this but I have only ever met one person who uses the above pronunciation; for me and everyone else I have heard it has been "ki-BOSH". Is it possible we are but a marginal minority?• kibosh •
Pronunciation: kai-bahsh • (snip)
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Colonel Potter
Colonel Potter on MASH always accented the first syllable and since he was a golden source of such lexical marginalia, I go with him.
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OK I'll admit I also heard Colonel Potter say it the wrong way. I always thought it was another joke. Of curse if'n one has the habit of believing everything one hears on TV I would suggest puttin' the kiBOSH on thatI am the person to whom Sluggo was referring who pronounces KIbosh the correct way. I suspect Sluggo is in error or in denial (or maybe in North Carolina instead of New Orleans where he belongs) to suggest I am the ONLY person he's heard pronounce KIbosh KIbosh.
Hey Sluggo?
Kibosh.
Anyway, given a choice, I fink mine's is mo' musical... you know, like N'awlins?
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We should note that this is all in fun; Nolajam and I have been bestest friends for years and no amount of improper enunciation is gonna kibosh that. Or even kibosh it. In fact she it was who brought this board to my attention via the Reb/Yank test. I think we have some other variants out there between us, don't we Maggie? (the memory is the second thing to go...)
Still, with all due respect to the Good Doctor and the bad actor, I might submit we skate on thin isoglossic ice indeed if we look to Harry Morgan for the last word on pronounciationments.
And now that I done dug myself a hole, let me take a moment to quit digging and sincerely thank the Good Doctor Goodword for all his operations on this board. And not just because I wouldn't want to quibble with a senior North Carolinian who can prolly get me booted out of the state... seriously, you keep it healthy, Doc, thanks! Even if the medicine don't always taste good.
Still, with all due respect to the Good Doctor and the bad actor, I might submit we skate on thin isoglossic ice indeed if we look to Harry Morgan for the last word on pronounciationments.
And now that I done dug myself a hole, let me take a moment to quit digging and sincerely thank the Good Doctor Goodword for all his operations on this board. And not just because I wouldn't want to quibble with a senior North Carolinian who can prolly get me booted out of the state... seriously, you keep it healthy, Doc, thanks! Even if the medicine don't always taste good.
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...so I recently watched Harry Morgan again (because somebody has to) and re-witnessed another of his gems, "Criminy!" -in which he somehow gets a long I into it (!). These two together convince me that it was intended by the M*A*S*H writers as a running joke, however subtle, and therefore kiboshes his credibility.Still, with all due respect to the Good Doctor and the bad actor, I might submit we skate on thin isoglossic ice indeed if we look to Harry Morgan for the last word on pronounciationments
Maybe Colonel Potter was just I-minded.
Last edited by sluggo on Thu Jun 01, 2006 12:15 am, edited 1 time in total.
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kiBOSH
Actually, most dictionaries list both pronunciations but all give kiBOSH second place. None of us here in PA, including those of us from NC have heard the second pronunciation (that we recall), so we still go with the preferred pronunciation. It would be nice to do a survey to get some data on this. Whereabouts have yall heard the accent on the second syllable?
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Re: kiBOSH
I think this just cries out for a poll, Doc. I'd set one up but I don't know how.Actually, most dictionaries list both pronunciations but all give kiBOSH second place. None of us here in PA, including those of us from NC have heard the second pronunciation (that we recall), so we still go with the preferred pronunciation. It would be nice to do a survey to get some data on this. Whereabouts have yall heard the accent on the second syllable?
I'm an NC transplant who also grew up in PA, and I have only ever heard ki-BOSH except for my aforementioned amiga, who's from upstate NY.
Of course as stated before, PA is linguistically and otherwise schizophrenical. My experience was in the Southeast.
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