English Explanatory Dictionary

zhoosh

English dictionary entry

Meanings

verb
  1. To tweak, finesse or improve (something); to make more appealing or exciting. Usually with up.
adj
  1. stylish, hot, cool
noun
  1. Style, glamor (especially in regard to clothing).
verb
  1. To blend ingredients together using an electric food mixer.
noun
  1. The action of mixing ingredients using an electric food mixer; a pulse of mixing.

Pronunciation

/ʒʊʃ/ /ʒʊʒ/ LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-zhoosh.wav /ʒʉʃ/ /ʒʉʒ/

Word forms

zhoosh zhooshes zhooshing zhooshed jooj joosh joozh juj jush juzh tszuj zhoozh zhush zhuzh more zhoosh most zhoosh

Etymology

UK 1960s. Unclear origin; one explanation is that it was borrowed from Angloromani yuser (“clean”, verb) and yusher (“clear”, verb), from Angloromani yus-, yuz-, yuzh- (“clean”) and yush- (“clear”), from Romani žuž-, už- (“clean”, adjective) (also compare Hindi उज्ज्वल (ujjval, “bright”)), but this has been seen as problematic. Another theory is that the term is instead an "expressive formation" similar to whoosh and swish. The South African sense reportedly comes from a regional pronunciation of "Jewish", alluding to the high reputation of Jewish tailors at the time, but this has also been considered unlikely. All senses originated around the same time, with the first attributed use of the noun in 1968 and the verb in 1970.

Synonyms

spice spruce sweeten à la mode chic trendy a la mode/à la mode all the rage sassy cool dapper done elegant fashionable groovy happening hep hip in in fashion jaunty modish natty on fleek on trend pizazzy spiffing spiffy styleworthy stylish smart snazzy tasteful tippy voguish up-to-the-minute with-it zhoosh dash flamboyance panache swagger verve blitz

Derived words

zhooshy
This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.
Back to search All on Z Russian dictionary Dahl dictionary