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#167178 - 03/24/07 11:43 PM Re: kibosh [Re: wwh]
pearliemay pearliemay stranger Registered: 09/12/06 Posts: 1	I'm new at this, but I remember seeing an explanation of the origin of 'kibosh' a long time ago, I don't remember where, but it seemed at the time to be a fairly respectable source. Their explanation was that, way back when, in a law court, if the judge was about to pronounce a sentence of death, he ceremonially laid a square of black linen over his wig before he spoke. This was in the British Isles, could have been Ireland, Scotland, Wales, or England itself. That square of black linen was called the 'kibosh' or death cap. Regards, Pearliemay
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#167181 - 03/25/07 06:16 AM Re: kibosh [Re: pearliemay]
BranShea BranShea Pooh-Bah Registered: 06/23/06 Posts: 1856 Loc: Netherlands, the Hague	Hi there! On former page the links give already the informtion you asked for. Al anwers give no full clearity. kibosh 1836, kye-bosk, in slang phrase put the kibosh on, of unknown origin, despite intense speculation. Looks Yiddish, but origin in early 19c. English slang seems to argue against this. One candidate is Ir. caip bháis, caipín báis "cap of death," sometimes said to be the black cap a judge would don when pronouncing a death sentence, but in other sources identified as a gruesome method of execution "employed by Brit. forces against 1798 insurgents" [Bernard Share, "Slanguage, A Dictionary of Irish Slang"]. Or it may somehow be connected with Turkish bosh (see bosh). (from Online Ethymology Dictionary.)Don't ask me what Meta -words mean.
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