scoosh [+skosh]

[moriakhazad]

I was watching oz and I encountered with this sentence

"Groves is a demented sociopath without a scoosh of remorse." said the warden of prison, "scoosh of" sounded like "a bit of" to me but, I wondered your opinions.

 

[Enquiring Mind]

I suspect it's a variation of skosh:

skosh
A small amount of something.
From the Japanese word "sukoshi," pronounced skosh. That also means a little bit. (Urban Dicionary)

As this meaning of the word occurs (as far as I can see) only in the "Urban Dictionary", you can (probably) guarantee that no-one says it or has ever heard of it, and it's understandable only in the context in which it's used.

 

[JulianStuart]

Indeed. We have had a discussion on skosh, in which it became clear that some people have heard/used it but to most it is new.
skosh

 

[Edinburgher]

Scoosh is a perfectly good English word (verb and noun), with no need to impute any Japanese provenance.
As a noun, it means a squirt or splash, basically a small quantity, which fits the OP context quote well. The warden might otherwise have said "without an ounce of remorse".

Although WRD doesn't list it, Lexico has it, and labels it "Scottish", which explains my familiarity with it.

I've never heard of skosh, except from someone asking for another glass of Scotch.

 

[Roxxxannne]

Indeed. We have had a discussion on skosh, in which it became clear that some people have heard/used it but to most it is new.
skosh

Three of the four people from the US who responded on that thread know skosh (as do I), so I suspect it's informal in the US and not confined just to one region.

 

[dojibear]

you can (probably) guarantee that no-one says it or has ever heard of it

In my dialect of American English (near New York City), the word "skosh" is normal. I've heard it and used it since the 1950s. I think it is fairly common. In the other thread (see link in post #3) Packard said he saw it in advertisements online.

It has the same meaning as "scoosh", so I suspect it is the same word (but I'm not sure).

 

[JulianStuart]

Three of the four people from the US who responded on that thread know skosh (as do I), so I suspect it's informal in the US and not confined just to one region.

I see it as more of a "cultural" than a geographical/regional distinction: If your family and friends used it so you learnt it while you were growing up, no matter which region that was.

 

[Packard]

I suspect it's a variation of skosh:

As this meaning of the word occurs (as far as I can see) only in the "Urban Dictionary", you can (probably) guarantee that no-one says it or has ever heard of it, and it's understandable only in the context in which it's used.

I agree, but there are similarly spelled and pronounced words, so I would not use the term unless the context made its meaning perfectly clear.

The three words shown below are all from Collins Dictionary.

 

[dojibear]

AE has "scooch over" meaning "move over".

 

[kentix]

I was doing some upgrades to my car and one company I bought parts from is called Scosche. When I saw the name, the word/idea that is the topic of this thread immediately came to mind. I have heard that word off and on my whole life, too, but there was never much reason to write it or see it written so I have no idea what the "right" way is. (Skosh doesn't "look right" to me.) My understanding from hearing it used is that it signifies a small amount, which could be something squirted, but is not limited to that.

 

[kentix]

All the etymology information that I came across said it is originally from Japanese sukoshi. That includes dictionaries and etymonline.com. That site says it entered English via the Korean War as military slang. Of course I don't know if that's true, but I do know that large numbers of US forces were sent to Korea directly from Japan in the early days of the conflict. They were in Japan as occupation forces after World War II.

 

[JulianStuart]

All the etymology information that I came across said it is originally from Japanese sukoshi. That includes dictionaries and etymonline.com. That site says it entered English via the Korean War as military slang. Of course I don't know if that's true, but I do know that large numbers of US forces were sent to Korea directly from Japan in the early days of the conflict. They were in Japan as occupation forces after World War II.

And there is also a substantial Japanese American population in the US, and all of those who I've met know this word (although most of them have no Japanese!). The way people use the word is the same in Japanese and English (=a little bit). Most Japanese pronounce the i distinctly while for one on Forvo it was almost absent, although the end of the sound -sh can sound like a vowel of some sort

 

[pob14]

In the late 70s or early 80s, Levi’s advertised jeans “with a skosh more room.” I would expect Americans of my generation to immediately understand the word because of those commercials.

 

[kentix]

Yes, I forgot about those.