Kibosh

The morning was so gorgeous, we were thinking we might have a picnic on the front lawn in the afternoon. Sadly, the rain put the kibosh on that plan. Kibosh. What a great word to use when you want to say something was cut short in a dramatic fashion. This one has been sitting on my list for ages. It was suggested to me by longtime pal, Jill. I can just hear her saying it and I smile. I tend to hear kibosh in my head as ka-bosh. But all the research I do indicates kye-bosh is correct. For such a funny word with very questionable origins, I don’t know that it matters. According to etymology online, kibosh is British slang, not Yiddish, though it sounds like that. It first appeared in a Dickens novel. It’s thought to possibly be from an Irish phrase that translates as “cap of death”, a black cap a judge wore to pronounce a death sentence. That’s some awfully strong imagery, but I couldn’t corroborate it on any other site. Now you may be wondering why the pic of the gorgeous Jennifer Garner accompanies this post. Um, well, I did a web search for images of kibosh and this popped up. It was from a 2007 People mag article in which Jen reportedly said, “We would just kibosh it”, when asked what she and husband Ben would do if then 2-year old daughter Violet showed an interest in acting. You tell ‘em Jen.