ABSTRACT
Stoffel (1894:236–238) presents various material on kibosh, and two of the quotes are noteworthy for being entirely in the spirit of 'put on the kibosh' in Penal Servitude!. That spirit is the forceful/dramatic putting a stop to something dishonest or illegal. This chapter represents a few more pieces of the 'kibosh' puzzle but without altering the interpretation that Little and Goranson have already advanced, viz, that kibosh (in put the kibosh on) likely derives from the fearsome Middle Eastern whip, the kurbash. A series of verse letters by Edwin James Milliken (1839–97) that appeared in Punch between 1877 and 1897 contain more than twenty attestations of kibosh. The letters are ostensibly the work of a Cockney named 'Arry, who sometimes uses kibosh as a variant (perhaps intensified) of bosh 'nonsense, foolishness', but usually the varied meanings all stem from kibosh 'whip, lash' as an instrument of discipline.
