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Etymology and origin of the English word tosh

English has three main words spelled tosh, all of unknown or uncertain origin: a Scottish adjective meaning neat (1776), a slang noun for valuables found in drains (1851) and a slang noun meaning nonsense (1892).[1][2]

Pronunciation

tosh1 neat, tidy

Confidence
Unknown
First attested
1776 D. Herd, Ancient and Modern Scottish Songs

Etymology

The Scottish adjective meaning neat or trim is of unknown origin.[2][1][4][5] The verb, to tidy, is a conversion of it.[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Neat, clean, tidy or trim: 1776, in David Herd's Ancient and Modern Scottish Songs.[2][1][6]

Semantic evolution

From "neat" the word spread to "agreeable, comfortable" and to "friendly, intimate" (1821).[2] It was used as an adverb from 1808, in Mayne's Siller Gun, and as a verb, to make tidy, from 1826, in the Noctes Ambrosianae.[2] Wright's dialect dictionary records it across Scotland, also for "happy" in Galloway and for "intimate, friendly" in Orkney and Caithness, with the verb used with off or up, the adverb toshly and the adjective toshy.[6]

Timeline

  • 1776 – neat, tidy, trim.[2][1][6]
  • 1808 – adverb, neatly.[2]
  • 1821 – comfortable; friendly, intimate.[2]
  • 1826 – verb, to make neat, to tidy.[2]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. (Scottish) Neat, tidy or trim.[4][2][6]
  2. (Scottish) Comfortable or snug; friendly, intimate.[4][2][6]

Verb

  1. (Scottish) To make neat or tidy, usually with up.[4][2][6]

Word family

  • toshly

tosh2 valuables from drains

Confidence
Unknown
First attested
1851 Mayhew, London Labour and the London Poor

Etymology

The London slang noun for things of value found in drains is of unknown origin.[2][1][7] The OED compares tosher, a person who searched the sewers,[2] and Green's Dictionary of Slang derives tosher from a dialect adjective meaning muddy.[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Items of value picked up in drains and sewers or along the river shore: 1851, in Mayhew's London Labour and the London Poor, which says that the sewer-hunters called the things they found tosh and were themselves known as toshers.[2][8] Etymonline dates the word to 1852.[1]

Semantic evolution

The word stayed in criminal and street slang, which the Shorter Oxford labels it.[7] The OED suggests that tosh meaning nonsense may be the same word, and the slang lexicographer Puxley has suggested a link between that sense and the things toshers scavenged.[2][8]

Timeline

  • 1851 – valuables retrieved from drains and sewers.[2][8]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (slang) Things of value retrieved from drains and sewers.[2][7][1]

Word family

  • tosher

tosh3 nonsense

Confidence
Disputed
First attested
1892 Oxford University Magazine

Etymology

The slang noun meaning nonsense is of uncertain origin.[2][9][10][7][11] The OED thinks it is perhaps the same word as tosh, valuables from drains, and compares the earlier bosh and the later posh in the same sense, without a direct connection.[2] Etymonline and Partridge suggest an alteration of bosh,[1][12] while the American Heritage Dictionary and Dictionary.com take it as probably a blend of trash and bosh.[13][5] Green's Dictionary of Slang mentions bosh or a dialect adjective meaning muddy,[8] and Weekley thought it might come from a schoolboy word tosh for the penis that he remembered from 1879.[14]

Earliest recorded meaning

Nonsense, rubbish, twaddle: 1892, in the Oxford University Magazine.[2][1] Green's Dictionary of Slang calls it originally Oxford University slang, with a first quotation from Punch in 1895.[8]

Semantic evolution

From university slang the word passed into general British colloquial use, where Collins still labels it chiefly British.[8][10] It is often used as an exclamation of disbelief or disapproval,[4][7] and the OED records a use in cricket in 1898.[2] The adjective toshy, worthless or rubbishy, is recorded from the early 20th century.[7][1]

Timeline

  • 1892 – nonsense, rubbish.[2][1]
  • 1898 – a use in cricket.[2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (chiefly British, informal) Nonsense; rubbish or twaddle: Most of the brochure was utter tosh.[10][4][2]
  2. Used as an exclamation of disbelief or disapproval.[4][7]

Word family

  • toshy

Usage notes

The OED and the Shorter Oxford record further slang nouns spelled tosh: in school slang a bath or footbath (1881), with a verb meaning to splash or to bathe;[2][7] a clipping of tosheroon, half a crown, also used for money in general (1912);[2][7] and a neutral or jocular form of address, especially to a stranger (1954), perhaps from the Scottish adjective.[2][7][8] Green's Dictionary of Slang adds tosh for a hat (1890) and, in Australia, for a raincoat, short for mackintosh (1900).[8] In northern and eastern English dialects tosh was also a tusk or projecting tooth.[6]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  5. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  6. ^ a b c d e f g Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
  9. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  10. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  11. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  12. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
  13. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  14. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
Cite this entry

“Tosh.” Etymologically, 14 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/en/tosh. Accessed 14 Nov. 2026.

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