josh

Disputed origin, first attested in the mid-19th century. The earliest example is capitalized, therefore is likely derived from the proper name Joshua.^[1]

josh (plural joshes)

1. An instance of good-natured banter.

josh (third-person singular simple present joshes, present participle joshing, simple past and past participle joshed)

1. (transitive) To tease someone in a kindly or friendly fashion.
2. (intransitive) To make or exchange good-natured jokes.
   • 1902, Jack London, chapter XIV, in A Daughter of the Snows:

     We are old friends, did I not tell you? So I may, what you Americans call, josh with him.

   • 1910, O. Henry [pseudonym; William Sydney Porter], “The Girl and the Habit”, in Strictly Business‎:

     “Cut that joshing out,” she said, coolly and briskly. “Who do you think you are talking to? Your check, please. Oh, Lordy!—”

   • 2013 September 13, Russell Brand, “Russell Brand and the GQ awards”, in The Guardian‎:

     Boris, it seems, is taking it in this spirit, joshing beneath his ever-redeeming barnet that Labour's opposition to military action in Syria is a fey stance that he, as GQ politician of the year, would never be guilty of.

• josher
• joshingly

• rogan josh

• “josh”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.

From Proto-Albanian *jāudsja, from Proto-Indo-European *Hyewdʰ- (compare Lithuanian jáudinti (“to excite, arouse”), Polish judzić (“to incite”), Latin jubere (“to order”)).

josh (aorist josha, participle joshur)

1. to fondle, caress
2. to entice, seduce

• joshë