kibosh

Meanings

Noun

• A checking or restraining element. .
• Nonsense, bosh.
• Fashion; style.

Verb

• To decisively terminate.

Origin

• Attested since at least the 1830s in a variety of spellings such as kibbosh and kye-bosk, of unclear origin. Speculations include:
• A non-rhotic variant of kurbash, which is from Arabic كُرْبَاج, from Turkish kırbaç, (Ottoman Turkish قرباچ)
• Some relationship to bosh.
• From Middle English caboche, cabosh, "behead (a deer)", related to French caboche.
• From Hebrew כָּבַשׁ, meaning subdue or bring into bondage.
• From Irish caidhp bháis, "death cap" (the hood put on someone before they were hanged to death, or the "black cap" worn by English judges when pronouncing the death sentence).