Just a touch of linguistic help please?

Has anyone here ever heard of a word that sounds like skotch?
(with a long o as in mote)
Generally used in sentences to mean just a touch…
Something like this.
“Would you like a little milk for your coffee?”
“Just a ‘skotch’”

I ask because I haven’t been able to find it in a couple of dictionaries I checked out, only two of my friends had vaguely heard of it; and interestingly, it sounds similar to a Japanese word that I will probably transliterate wrongly as tsukoshi which has the same approximate meaning.
I was wondering if this was another Nihon word working its way into the English language, or if in fact the similarity was pure coincidence.

skosh.

According to this you guessed right:

http://www.bartleby.com/61/66/S0456600.html

I’d never of guessed that etymology …

According to my American Heritage dictionary:

Looks like it is a Japanese word that made it into English.

Bam! I love how Straight Dope denizens can just nail these questions in no time flat. Within five minutes I have two responses with same American Heritage ref. I’ll have to use it when looking up slang words in the future (of course, I had no clue how to spell it…)
Thanks!

As with all things, go to the master first, Kyberneticist. :slight_smile:

Unca Cece answered this question here. :slight_smile: