Noun: joss
| Singular | joss |
| Plural | josses |
Sample Sentences
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Don't forget they're mostly just joss-worshipping heathen an' they don't get no kick out of the more classy breeds o' religion. Though I guess there ain't that much diff'rence. It ain't many's so Lord Almighty in theirselves that they don't need a joss of some sort, an' I guess it's what yu think about him matters not the sort o' joss. [1939, Philip George Chadwick, The Death Guard, pages 111–112:]
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She had twisted a piece of heather into her mail box for good joss, and this was the safety signal. [1977, John Le Carré, The Honourable Schoolboy, Folio Society, published 2010, page 178:]
Nouns inflected like joss
penniless-bench,
wintergrass,
kitchen pass,
grey fox,
grey box,
trailer hitch,
paleness,
loaded march,
Tush Push,
horribleness,
slaughteress,
chapparvovirus,
greenwax,
royal flush,
crab cactus,
geostress,
syngas,
wintercress,
ichthys,
ichthus, etc. (List truncated at 20 nouns)
Etymology
From Chinese Pidgin English joss, from Macau Pidgin Portuguese, from Portuguese deus (“god”), from Latin deus (“god”), from Proto-Indo-European *deywós (“god/that which belongs to heaven”). Doublet of Tiw and Tyr. See: Portuguese Nouns '
deus', Latin Nouns '
deus'.