English word origin

Etymology of tosh

From 19th-century British thieves' cant, of uncertain origin. Perhaps from *tarsh, a metathetic alteration of trash; or from toss. Sense of nonsense possibly influenced by tush (“nonsense! tsk tsk!”) attested from 15th c

3 source sectionsExtended source reportWiktionary original ↗

In this entry · 3 source sections

The source etymologies

Wiktionary via Kaikki / Wiktextract

The source reports below are imported and unreviewed by *SET-U. Separate numbered origins and differing source variants are preserved; agreement within this extraction is not independent corroboration.

Source etymology 1

Original entry ↗

noun

Copper; items made of copper. · Valuables retrieved from drains and sewers. · Rubbish, trash, (now especially) nonsense, bosh, balderdash · A bath or foot pan

verb

To steal copper, particularly from ship hulls · To search for valuables in sewers · To use a tosh-pan, either to wash, to splash, or to "bath"

Selected source glosses provide context, not a complete modern definition inventory

This page abbreviates 2 auxiliary source items. The etymology narrative is not shortened. Omission counts are available in the audit fields below; consult the original for complete auxiliary material.

Inspect preserved source fields

Raw extraction fields are retained for auditing. Their order does not establish ancestry.

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      "toss",
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      "tush",
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Source etymology 2

Original entry ↗

adj

Tight. · Neat, clean; tidy, trim. · Comfortable, agreeable; friendly, intimate.

verb

To make ‘tosh’: to tidy, to trim.

adv

Toshly: neatly, tidily

Selected source glosses provide context, not a complete modern definition inventory

Compare Old French tonce (“shorn, clipped”) and English tonsure.

Relationships mentioned by the source

These are extracted mentions, not a timeline or a verified sequence of immediate parents.

Cognate mentiontoncefro
Cognate mentiontonsureen

Inspect preserved source fields

Raw extraction fields are retained for auditing. Their order does not establish ancestry.

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Source etymology 3

Original entry ↗

noun

A half-crown coin; its value · A crown coin; its value · Any money, particularly pre-decimalization British coinage

Selected source glosses provide context, not a complete modern definition inventory

From 19th-century British slang tosheroon, from or alongside tusheroon, of uncertain derivation from British slang caroon (“crown, a 5-shilling silver coin”), from Sabir and (originally) Italian corona (“crown”). The term was either derived from or influenced by madza caroon, the British slang for the Sabir and Italian mezzo corona (“half-crown”), possibly under influence from tosh (“copper items; valuables”) above or from the half-crown's value of two shillings & sixpence.

Relationships mentioned by the source

These are extracted mentions, not a timeline or a verified sequence of immediate parents.

Derivation mentioncoronait
Derivation mentionmezzo coronait · half-crown

Inspect preserved source fields

Raw extraction fields are retained for auditing. Their order does not establish ancestry.

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Where this record stops

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Contribute located evidence for tosh →

Source and snapshot

Imported from Wiktionary contributors; extracted by Tatu Ylonen / Wiktextract / Kaikki.org. Selected fields are reformatted and grouped; wording, source identity and etymology sections are retained. CC-BY-SA-4.0 applies to the imported source material.

Dump: 2026-10-01 · Extracted: 2026-10-30. These are snapshot dates, not the word’s first attestation or the page’s revision date.

Source entry and bibliography ↗Wiktionary revision history ↗Acquisition and rights ledger

Machine-source provenance

Source SHA-256: 5ff2c072f8099f2d2ce484bd6957bf179f046d2ad37bc36555edf8bb84cb5291
Import run: 73216b9a9b78ed3830994bf853103716f5a4dc57099e371e9f8fdc468facca26
Permanent entry ID: w-dG9zaA