In the 16th century, Turkish women could divorce their husbands if the man failed to keep his family’s pot filled with coffee.
JOSS
joss
(noun) a Chinese god worshipped in the form of an idol
Source: WordNet® 3.1
Etymology
Noun
joss (countable and uncountable, plural josses)
(countable) A Chinese household divinity; a Chinese idol.
(countable) A heathen divinity.
(uncountable, informal) Luck.
Synonyms
• (luck): chance, fortune; see also luck
Etymology
Proper noun
Joss
A diminutive of the female given name Jocelyn.
A diminutive of the male given name Joseph.
Verb
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
Recent Word Finds
Word of the Day
15 April 2025
DOOMED
(adjective) marked by or promising bad fortune; “their business venture was doomed from the start”; “an ill-fated business venture”; “an ill-starred romance”; “the unlucky prisoner was again put in irons”- W.H.Prescott
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