Years ago, I read a story in which a character used the word Cosh to name a makeshift weapon that consisted of a hard weight in a sleeve or sock. I would like to use it in a story, but now can't find any reference to it in the Concise OED. However, the COED also lacks a reference for either blackjack or sap as clubs (lots of other meanings listed). I believe these are both American terms, which gives me hope that my memory of cosh is correct and that it, too, is American in origin. If so, I'd also like to know when it was coined (hopefully prior to 1853, the time of my story). For that matter, I'd like to know when blackjack was coined. Anyone out there with better resources than I?

Many thanks,
Dean

according to W3(unab.), a cosh is a British blackjack..

Etymology: perhaps from Romany kosh, koshter stick, skewer
chiefly Britain : a weighted weapon usually similar to a blackjack; also : an attack with a cosh

as for blackjack (ca. 1889), from the same source..

[black + jack (instrument)] : a small striking weapon typically consisting at the striking end of a leather-enclosed piece of lead or other heavy metal and at the handle end of a strap or springy shaft that increases the force of impact

Sometime in the last month or so, we had a gang member attacked by another with a rock in a sock. Could that be cosh? I saw boys
playing target practice in the West Bank a few years back, using socks loaded with rocks, similar, I suppose, to the sling David used on Goliath - tho' in that case the rock was released, whereas herein the whole sock accompanied the rock.

Usually a cosh is a sock filled with sand.

Will 1860s-80s do OK?

OED:

Cosh (meaning no. 3):
A stout stick, bludgeon or truncheon; a length of metal used as a life-preserver; also (dial.), a stick; a school cane; a caning. Phr. under the cosh, at one's mercy, helpless.

1869 ‘A MERCHANT’ 6 Yrs. in Prisons vii. 76 The coshman (a man who carries a ‘cosh’ or life preserver). a1889 in Barrère & Leland Dict. Slang (1889) s.v., The officer..sought to give the finishing coup de grâce with his cosh. 1893 H. T. COZENS-HARDY Broad Norfolk 83 Words which I have been accustomed to hear in common use... Cosh,..a stick. 1896 A. MORRISON Child of Jago i, The cosh was a foot length of iron rod, with a knob at one end, and a hook (or a ring) at the other. 1898 WRIGHT Eng. Dial. Dict. s.v., Cosh, ..a caning at school. War[wickshire]. You will get the cosh. 1904 Daily Chron. 29 Sept. 4/5 ‘Coshes’pieces of lead pipe, known to the police as life-preservers. 1925 FRASER & GIBBONS Soldier & Sailor Words 64 Cosh, the bludgeon carried by night patrols men and trench raiders. Ibid. 138 Kosh, a name for a trench club, or knobkerry, used in trench raids. 1927 Weekly Dispatch 23 Oct. 4 A truncheon, or, in prison vernacular, ‘kosh’. 1958 F. NORMAN Bang to Rights I. 37 In the nick where you are under the cosh..most of the screws seem to take a sadistic delight in makeing [sic] things as uncomfortable as they can for you. 1959 ‘M. AINSWORTH’ Murder is Catching i. 19 Clench a newspaper over a handful of coins and you've got a comfortable little cosh. 1959 I. & P. OPIE Lore & Lang. Schoolchildren xvii. 374 Amongst children one of the most common names for the cane is ‘the cosh’. 1960 Observer 24 Jan. 7/2 As for the Criminal Justice Act, it could be very useful to have all the villains under the cosh, as they expressed it. It made it much easier to get information. 1965 Spectator 15 Jan. 67/1 All chains gone from the boys' lavatories to make coshes.

Blackjack (meaning no. 9):
A weapon consisting of a weighted head and short pliable shaft, used as a bludgeon. Hence as v., to strike with a blackjack. U.S.

1889 in Cent. Dict. 1895 Denver Times 5 Mar. 8/5 During the scuffle Miss Alderfer, Knapp's niece, saw the ‘black jack’ up his sleeve,..and as a result, swore out the concealed weapons charge. 1904 N.Y. Even. Post 10 Mar. 1 This position..was not such as the body would have taken had Newman been struck with a blackjack or other weapon. 1905 Ibid. 2 Sept., ‘I got a partner there [sc. in the penitentiary],’ Red said,..‘blackjacked a man.’ 1934 J. M. CAIN Postman always rings Twice iv. 31 She was to..clip him from behind with a blackjack I had made for her out of a sugar bag with ball bearings wadded down in the end. 1946 ‘P. QUENTIN’ Puzzle for Fiends (1947) xv. 106 Perhaps you gave a ride to a hitchhiker who blackjacked you.

I gotta admit, when I first read the subject line in this thread I wondered what hyperbolic cosines had to do with vingt-et-une

All the chains gone from the boys' lavatories to make coshes!
Reminds me of the delightful movie from Ireland, I believe, the War of the Buttons. Socks filled with buttons?

Strange little movie, that. My wife played recorder on the sound track.

Thanks for the info Andrew. Your wife played the recorder for it, imagine! It is a small world, it is, when one makes a comment on this site and runs into someone with info like that.
I enjoyed the movie, and I even have it. At first I had no idea what cutting off another "lad's" buttons could start. But it proves controversy can exist over anything, I guess. Thanks for letting me know that others have seen it,and I am not alone in
that.

My wife played recorder on the sound track. Oh, Andrew, that's so cool! (Sorry, I've not seen the movie, but.) Do you play anything? Yes, I know I've left myself wide open, with that one.

Yes, I play the viol (viola da gamba). My first job was teaching classical guitar; my most recent undertaking is teaching the ukulele.

What could you possibly teach a ukulele?

How to duel with a Banjo?

Love it! I mo go get me a uke and a banjo and start selling tickets.

I've heard of dueling banjos, a contest of sort, yes? But a uke and a banjo? Possibly. Sort of seems like apples vs. oranges.
But what do I know?

That's a joke... I say, that's a joke, son.

HYPOCRITE!!! Okay, I'll calm down now. At least it's clear we're ALL sinners... ;0)

My pupil is very keen; he comes with three ukes, one of which is a banjo-ukulele.

They must have made friends, after a bout or two of duelling . . . Tancredi & Clorinda come to mind . . . accompanied by ukuleles and banjos.

No one has yet answered what to teach a ukulele? Can the feat
be done?

well, first the ukulele needs to want to learn....

One more ukelele joke and I'll bean you with my cosh!

Seriously, thanks to all who replied, including the digression. Alas, the time period for cosh is too late in the game for my book. I'm sure there must have been a word for such a thing at the time (it's too simple a weapon to have taken so long to invent), but it may well have been lost. If anyone comes across one, please let me know.

Thanks again,
Dean