joss
(noun) a Chinese god worshipped in the form of an idol
Source: WordNet® 3.1
joss (countable and uncountable, plural josses)
(countable) A Chinese household divinity; a Chinese idol.
(countable) A heathen divinity.
(uncountable, informal) Luck.
• (luck): chance, fortune; see also luck
Joss
A diminutive of the female given name Jocelyn.
A diminutive of the male given name Joseph.
Joss (third-person singular simple present Josses, present participle Jossing, simple past and past participle Jossed)
(fandom, transitive) To invalidate a fan theory or original element of a fanwork through the introduction of new canon or retconning.
Source: Wiktionary
Joss, n. Etym: [Chinese, corrupt. fr. Pg. deos God, L. deus.]
Definition: A Chinese household divinity; a Chinese idol. "Critic in jars and josses." Colman (1761). Joss house, a Chinese temple or house for the Chinese mode of worship.
– Joss stick, a reed covered with a paste made of the dust of odoriferous woods, or a cylinder made wholly of the paste; -- burned by the Chinese before an idol.
Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition
22 February 2025
(noun) the use of closed-class words instead of inflections: e.g., ‘the father of the bride’ instead of ‘the bride’s father’
The first coffee-house in Mecca dates back to the 1510s. The beverage was in Turkey by the 1530s. It appeared in Europe circa 1515-1519 and was introduced to England by 1650. By 1675 the country had more than 3,000 coffee houses, and coffee had replaced beer as a breakfast drink.
