Joseph Spiers
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The Mysterious Origins of Kibosh
Evidence of kibosh dates the word to only a few years before Charles Dickens used it in an 1836 sketch, but despite kibosh being relatively young in English its source is elusive. Claims were once made that it was Yiddish, despite the absence of a plausible Yiddish source. Another hypothesis pointed to Irish caidhp bhais, literally, coif (or cap) of death, explained as headgear a judge put on when pronouncing a death sentence, or as a covering pulled over the face of a corpse when a coffin was closed. But evidence for any metaphorical use of this phrase in Irish is lacking, and kibosh is not recorded in English as spoken in Ireland until decades after Dickens' use. More recent source theories include a heraldic term for an animal’s head when born with only its face fully showing, and an Arabic word meaning “whip, lash,” but as the note at our etymology explains, no theory has sufficient evidence to back it.
Examples of kibosh in a Sentence
Aldo Svaldi, The Denver Post, 18 Oct. 2024
One suit, brought by the good governance group City Club of New York, argues Hochul’s congestion kibosh was undemocratic, violating the state’s separation of powers.
—Evan Simko-Bednarski, New York Daily News, 25 July 2024
Safety concerns and a weak economy put a kibosh on convertible dreams in the ’70s.
—Mark Dent, thehustle.co, 3 May 2024
The congestion pricing kibosh comes as Manhattan traffic is reaching historic levels, Schwartz said.
—Evan Simko-Bednarski, New York Daily News, 6 June 2024
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Cite this Entry
“Kibosh.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/kibosh. Accessed 1 Dec. 2024.
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kibosh
noun
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