joss

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”).

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /dʒɒs/

  • Audio (Southern England):

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• (General American) IPA^(key): /dʒɔs/
• (cot–caught merger) IPA^(key): /dʒɑs/
• Rhymes: -ɒs

joss (countable and uncountable, plural josses)

1. (countable) A Chinese household divinity; a Chinese idol.
2. (countable) A heathen divinity.
   • 1939, Philip George Chadwick, The Death Guard, pages 111–112:

     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.

3. (uncountable, informal) Luck.
   • 1977, John Le Carré, The Honourable Schoolboy, Folio Society, published 2010, page 178:

     She had twisted a piece of heather into her mail box for good joss, and this was the safety signal.

• (luck): chance, fortune; see also Thesaurus:luck

• joss stick
• joss paper
• joss house

• joss-block

Calque of English iff, jos with the final consonant doubled

• As jos ja vain jos.

joss

1. (logic) iff (if and only if)

• jos ja vain jos