Kibosh - the definitive origin? No - Blarney!

Posted by James Briggs on September 02, 2004

In Reply to: Kibosh - the definitive origin? posted by David FG on September 01, 2004

: The cabbage theory sounds a bit unlikely to me, for one thing, cabáiste is pronounced ka-bashta.

: Why would anyone put a silver cabbage over the real one? It seems rather an elaborate ritual for what has always been a distinctly unglamorous vegetable!

: Daithi Mac Giolla Gearailt

It looks as if a touch of the blarney is present on that last posting. In today's Times cam the following riposte:
Your correspondent (Q&A, September 1), hailing from so close to Blarney, naturally tells a good story. But there never was a cabbage market as such in Cork (although there was one in Limerick, and there was a potato market in Cork quite near Coal Quay). Coal Quay was so named because from around 1690 it was where coal was landed for local heating and power; prior to that it was called Ferry Quay. Although it has occasionally and temporarily held other names too, it has never in its existence been called Kohl (or even, as we English would say, Cole) Quay. The kybosh is undoubtedly Irish in origin (see Q&A, August 31), but let us not confuse green cabbage with black cappage.
Mike Darton, Preston St Mary, Suffolk