kibosh (ki bosh, ki-bosh) or (ki-bash)
n. Informal
A checking or restraining element: had to put the kibosh on a poorly conceived
plan.
something that serves as a check or a stop
kibosh \Ki"bosh\, n. 1. Nonsense; stuff; also, fashion; style. [Slang]
2. Portland cement when thrown or blown into the recesses of carved stonework to intensify the shadows.
To put the kibosh on, to do for; to dispose of. [Slang]
v : stop from happening or developing; "Block his election"; "Halt the process" [syn: stop, halt, block]
"She was all for turning them in to the authorities and you put the kibosh on that." - Mickey Spillane, The Big Kill
It derives from Yiddish. This is the most popular explanation, though the details differ. One supposition is that it comes from the Yiddish word Kabas or Kabbasten, 'to suppress'. Another view is much stranger, saying that it is an acronym formed from the initial letters of three Yiddish words meaning 18 British coins: the Hebrew chai for 18 and shekel, meaning coin, with British in the middle. But, as Leo Rosten argues, that ought to make kibrosh rather than kibosh. He does say that there was special significance in the number 18, since in gematria (an important method of divination among Jews at one time), this was the number equivalent of the word life.
It is said by some (notably Julian Franklin) to have an heraldic origin, being derived from caboshed which is the heraldic description of the emblem of an animal which is shown full-face, but cut off close to the ears so that no neck shows.
The Irish poet, Padric Colum, believes the word originates in the Irish Gaelic phrase cie báis meaning "cap of death". The word báis is apparently pronounced 'bawsh' and cie is presumably pronounced with a hard initial consonant, rather like "kai".
Webster's New World Dictionary apparently derives it from Middle High German kiebe, meaning "carrion".
Whatever its origin, most authorities seem to agree that the word originated in Britain in the early part of last century (the OED cites Dickens' Sketches by Boz of 1836 as the first use in print, though there it has the sense of "rubbish, bosh") but that it was soon taken to America and became naturalised there. Early written references varied a lot in spelling. Dickens spelled it kye-bosk (presumably a literal spelling of the then Cockney pronunciation); the London humorous magazine Punch used cibosh in an article in 1856; the modern form appeared first in The Slang Dictionary in 1869. (Sources include www.quinion.com/words/articles/kibosh.htm and dictionary.com)