Comments on Etymology, May 2019: Kibosh Update #4 (Compilation)

Alternative Title

Kibosh Update #4 (Compilation)

Author

Gerald Leonard Cohen, Missouri University of Science and TechnologyFollow
Stephen Goranson
Matthew Little

Editor(s)

Gerald Cohen

Abstract

It has been ten years since Matthew Little sent me his suggestion that ‘kibosh’ in ‘put the kibosh on’ derives from the fearsome Mideastern whip known as the kurbash; Stephen Goranson soon thereafter independently made the same suggestion in messages to the American Dialect Society, gradually adding the important initial discoveries to buttress that proposal.

The three of us wound up collaborating on ‘kibosh,’ first in Comments on Etymology and then in our 2017 book Origin of Kibosh. Updates continued to appear in COE as various scholars weighed in and some new material appeared. It is time now to compile all the new material and the scholarly reactions (with responses where appropriate); hence the present COE issue.

The overall picture is that the scholarly jury is still out as to whether ‘kibosh’ in ‘put the kibosh on’ derives from ‘kurbash’ (fearsome Mideastern whip), but this proposal has been steadily gaining ground; the evidence for it, when compiled, does seem convincing. But the subject of ‘kibosh’ has many aspects, and improvement/new insight is always possible (and welcome).

Recommended Citation

Cohen, G. L., Goranson, S., & Little, M. (2019). Comments on Etymology, May 2019: Kibosh Update #4 (Compilation). 48(8) Gerald Leonard Cohen.

Department(s)

Arts, Languages, and Philosophy

Comments

Other articles of interest on this topic include:

• The Origin of Kibosh
• 'For "Kibosh": More evidence a whip can be "put on".'
• Revisit to kibosh – rejecting the Irish ‘cap-of-death’ etymology
• Revisit to kibosh – OED3’s tentative consideration of a Yiddish origin for kibosh in ‘put the kibosh on’ should be definitively set aside
• More on kibosh: ca. 1830 "Penal Servitude!" broadside denounced the callousness (not merely ineffectiveness) of the reform activity of the early 1830’s

Document Type

Journal

Document Version

Final Version

File Type

text

Language(s)

English

Rights

© 2019 Gerald Cohen, Stephen Goranson, Matthew Little, All rights reserved.

Publication Date

01 May 2019