Chrysti The Wordsmith: Josh - 2

Greetings and welcome to Christie the wordsmith. Last time on this series we tried to trace the origin of the verb. Josh meaning to joke or banter or kid around. Though it was coined by American English speakers less than 200 years ago. Little else is known about its pedigree. One source speculates that Joshua is a blend of the words joke and Bosh. Another offers that the masculine named Josh. short for Joshua was once a derogatory moniker for a gullible rustic bum Ken one who might fall for a ridiculous joke. Well if you don't care for either of those theories about Josh's origins consider the writings of Henry Wheeler Shaw aka Josh Billings nineteenth century essayist and literary comedian called a cracker barrel philosopher. Josh Billings published an eight hundred sixty eight collection of homespun quips that parodied the celebrated Farmer's Almanac. Full of deliberate misspellings his aphorisms were crafted with rustic humor. Most people he wrote are like an egg too full of

themselves to hold anything else with full spelled p h u l l and an E spelled E N and Y Josh billing style of literary banter has often been associated with the verb to Josh.. But no one seems to know if the humorist created his pen name around the verb that means to kid or joke or if the verb to Josh is an extension of Josh Billings name. I'm Christie the wordsmith Christie the wordsmith is sponsored by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and Zoot enterprises a high tech firm in Bozeman Montana offering challenging careers and innovative solutions for the financial services industry. Zoot web dot com.