Words with Stories

bosh (n.)

Bosh means nonsense or empty talk in English. It comes from the Turkish word boş, meaning empty.

It entered English in the nineteenth century and was helped along by J. J. Morier’s 1834 novel Ayesha, the Maid of Kars. What was empty in Turkish became empty talk in English, and then nonsense.

It is old-fashioned now, but it is still there.

You’re talking bosh.

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