# What's the origin of "skosh," meaning "a little bit"? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [December 13, 2006, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-origin-of-skosh-meaning-a-little-bit/383966 "2006-12-13T15:54:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2006, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-origin-of-skosh-meaning-a-little-bit/383966/1 "2006-12-13T15:54:47Z")
[http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a3\_267.html](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a3_267.html) Okay, I’ll bite. What **is** a Clog Palace? 😕 ---
**Author:** ![DSYoungEsq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c6cbf5/32.png) [@DSYoungEsq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSYoungEsq)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2006, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-origin-of-skosh-meaning-a-little-bit/383966/2 "2006-12-13T17:29:16Z")
[QUOTE=Bosda Di’Chi of Tricor] [http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a3\_267.html](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a3_267.html) Okay, I’ll bite. What **is** a Clog Palace? 😕 [/QUOTE] Presumably a place you clog dance. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2006, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-origin-of-skosh-meaning-a-little-bit/383966/3 "2006-12-13T18:26:18Z")
[QUOTE=DSYoungEsq] Presumably a place you clog dance. 🙂 [/QUOTE] Cite? ---
**Author:** ![ouryL](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ouryl/32/6067_2.png) [@ouryL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ouryL)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2006, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-origin-of-skosh-meaning-a-little-bit/383966/4 "2006-12-13T19:47:05Z")
Of course, we in Hawaii have used that term for years. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Gymnopithys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/fbc32d/32.png) [@Gymnopithys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gymnopithys)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2006, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-origin-of-skosh-meaning-a-little-bit/383966/5 "2006-12-13T21:20:28Z")
When I visited Japan with my wife, and were looking for a hotel, the mamma san asked if it was for a skoshi time. You know what she meant 😉 but we didn’t and had to look it up in the dictionary. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Rieux](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@Dr.Rieux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Rieux)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2006, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-origin-of-skosh-meaning-a-little-bit/383966/6 "2006-12-13T22:23:46Z")
[QUOTE=Bosda Di’Chi of Tricor] [http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a3\_267.html](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a3_267.html) Okay, I’ll bite. What **is** a Clog Palace? 😕 [/QUOTE] A house built by a plumber. ---
**Author:** ![DSYoungEsq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c6cbf5/32.png) [@DSYoungEsq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSYoungEsq)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2006, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-origin-of-skosh-meaning-a-little-bit/383966/7 "2006-12-14T00:28:58Z")
[QUOTE=Bosda Di’Chi of Tricor] Cite? [/QUOTE] You and humor don’t do too well with each other, do you? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![DSYoungEsq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c6cbf5/32.png) [@DSYoungEsq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSYoungEsq)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2006, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-origin-of-skosh-meaning-a-little-bit/383966/8 "2006-12-14T00:36:20Z")
[QUOTE=Bosda Di’Chi of Tricor] Cite? [/QUOTE] But since you ask… > [@](#): > > About the author > > Julie Mangin has been dancing since 1980, and playing banjo since 1989. She used to publish The Daily Clog, a newsletter about old-time music and dance, and organize old-time music events at the Clog Palace, in the Washington DC suburbs. Ms. Mangin is a librarian by profession. From [This site.](http://www.tackytreasures.com/julie/sqdconsp.html) Not definitive, but I think you get the idea. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![sleet01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cab0a1/32.png) [@sleet01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sleet01)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2006, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-origin-of-skosh-meaning-a-little-bit/383966/9 "2006-12-19T23:04:51Z")
My mom’s family has always used “skosh” interchangeably with “smidge”, as well as “hoki” for those funky hand-powered carpet brush devices that everyone had before there were Dirt Devils, and “zoris” for flip-flops. I believe my grand-dad picked them up either during the GHQ period in Japan, or sometime during the Korean War. These are all Japanese in origin: ‘sukoshi’ means a little and is generally used for physical amounts, as in, “osatou wa ikaga desu ka? / Ah, sukoshi dake onegaishimas.” ('Would you like sugar? / Oh, only a little, please.") In Southeastern Japan, especially in or around Tokyo, certain sounds at the ends of words go nearly unvoiced, and most ‘u’ sounds are given little voice as well, so the written ‘sukoshi’ comes out sounding like “skosh”. ‘hoki’ is Japanese for broom, which makes sense, but I’m not sure how the carpet sweeper gained that name in our family. It appears that two companies still sell carpet sweepers named “Hoki”, “Hoky”, or some other variation, though, so it may have been a brand name taken from Japanese originally. ‘zori’ are a traditional Japanese footwear from which our modern-day flip-flops probably originated (via New Zealand, if Wikipedia is to be believed). It’s interesting how words, phrases, and information can be transferred so far around the globe. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2006, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-origin-of-skosh-meaning-a-little-bit/383966/10 "2006-12-20T02:34:35Z")
[QUOTE=sleet01] “osatou wa ikaga desu ka? / Ah, sukoshi dake onegaishimas.” [/QUOTE] Ah, memories! To me, flip-flops are zoris. And we used s’koshi in our house all the time. For decades after we returned from Japan dad would say ‘Onno-ne! Kohi wa kudasai!’ or ‘Osatu wa kudasai!’ I used to hate it sometimes, when he’d ask for coffee while I was in the middle of watching a show or reading a book. I’d give much to have him around to bother me so now. ---
**Author:** ![Restring](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e9c0ed/32.png) [@Restring](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Restring)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2006, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-origin-of-skosh-meaning-a-little-bit/383966/11 "2006-12-21T17:55:28Z")
I was a cabinet maker for many years, and the word “skosh” had a very clear and distinct meaning in that craft. A skosh is the unit of measure described by the diameter of a Red Female pubic hair. :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![DSYoungEsq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c6cbf5/32.png) [@DSYoungEsq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSYoungEsq)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2006, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-origin-of-skosh-meaning-a-little-bit/383966/12 "2006-12-21T18:44:56Z")
[QUOTE=Restring] I was a cabinet maker for many years, and the word “skosh” had a very clear and distinct meaning in that craft. A skosh is the unit of measure described by the diameter of a Red Female pubic hair. :dubious: [/QUOTE] Never seen a Red Female before. What species are they? ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2006, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-origin-of-skosh-meaning-a-little-bit/383966/13 "2006-12-23T16:38:56Z")
[QUOTE=DSYoungEsq] Never seen a Red Female before. What species are they? [/QUOTE] You don’t see them very often. Not since the collapse of the Soviet Union. \*Ain’t got no cigarettes Feeling lonely, you can bet My girlfriend moved to Budapest She’s become a comunist No one to make love to Man, I tell you, I’m so blue But blue I’d rather be than Red I’d rather be dead…\*