Where did the term just joshing you come from?

Answer 1

"JOSH - The best guess is that the Americanism 'josh,' for 'to kid' or 'fool around,' is a merging of 'joke' and 'bosh.' The pseudonym of an American writer may have something to do with the word, though. Henry Wheeler Shaw (1818-85) wrote his deliberately misspelled crackerbox philosophy under the pen name Josh Billings. Employing dialect, ridiculous spellings, deformed grammar, monstrous logic, puns, malapropisms, and anticlimax, he became one of the most popular literary comedians of his time. The expression 'to josh' was used about 18 years before Josh Billings began writing in 1863, but his salty aphorisms probably strengthened its meaning and gave the term wider currency." From "Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins" by Robert Hendrickson (Fact on File, New York, 1997)

An unproven tale has been handed down from the case of Josh Tatum and the Racketeer Nickel. Some generations ago, the slang term "joshing" became a popular synonym for the word "kidding", supposedly attributed to Josh Tatum. The next time someone laughs and says "I'm only joshing you", the image of a speechless man presenting a fake five dollar coin in an 1883 general store ought to come to mind!

Answer 2

"Just joshing you" came from the late 1800's and has a very interesting story behind it!

Josh Tatum was a deaf mute, but a very enterprising young man from the Midwest. In 1883 the US Mint came out with a new nickel. It was deemed the Liberty Head Nickel and on the reverse side had a large roman numeral V stamped on it. The new nickel did not have the word "cents" or "nickel" stamped on it. Josh Tatum noticed this and the fact that it was nearly the same size as the US $5.00 gold piece, which at the time was used as common currency.

With the help of a friend familiar in gold electroplating base metal, they turned these coins into a figurative gold mine. Tatum went from town to town going into shops, stores & mercantiles. He was very careful not to purchase anything that cost more than a nickel, where he would hand over one of these gold plated nickels. The clerk would accept the coin, and in most instances give Josh back $4.95 in change, which he happily would take. By the time law enforcement caught up to him, he had visited hundreds of towns & had amassed a small fortune.

The Law prosecuted him but ironically he was found not guilty on the most serious charges, because he only purchased items that totaled 5 cents, and because he was deaf & could not speak he never represented that it was a new $5.00 gold piece.

The same year, the US mint added the word "cents" to the Liberty Head Nickle in an effort to bring this type of fraud to a halt.

Hence the famous saying "you're not Joshing me are you"?

Answer 3

Likely an older relative in your family has said this at some time. These old fashioned phrases get handed down from one generation to the next.