ish

See also: Appendix:Variations of "ish"

Translingual

Etymology

Clipping of English Ishan.

Symbol

ish

1. (international standards) ISO 639-3 language code for Esan.

See also

• Wiktionary’s coverage of Esan terms

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɪʃ/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪʃ

Etymology 1

From is.

Verb

ish

1. Pronunciation spelling of is.

Etymology 2

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *-iskos

Proto-Germanic *-iskaz

Proto-West Germanic *-isk

Old English -isċ

Middle English -isch

English -ishbf.

English ish

Back-formation from -ish.

Adverb

ish (not comparable)

1. (colloquial) somewhat, reasonably, fairly

   The exam went well... mostly... ish.

   "Was the film any good?" – "Ish."

   • 26 May 2012, Jason VandenBerghe, “The Five Domains of Play”, Gotland Game Conference, Uppsala University:

     This is where I started. Does Hermione like Dark Souls? Ish.

2. (colloquial) about, approximately
   • 1974, Kingsley Amis, Ending up, page 11:

     'With luck, about twelve.' 'Ah,' said Bernard. 'Twelve-thirty. Ish.'

   • 2007, Marne Davis Kellogg, Friends in High Places, page 283:

     How old are you? Fifty-ish?" / "Ish." / The color flared in her cheeks but she didn't look as though she were going to shoot me.

   • 2021 May, “Bogey”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name):
     (episode 38 of Manifest)

     Eagen: "Don't blame Little House on the Prairie. I was very charming."
     Angelina: "Did you lie about being an orphan too?"
     Eagen: "Ish."

Usage notes

• Like the suffix, the adverb is used only after the adjective it modifies, and never before.

Synonyms

• (somewhat): fairly, rather, somewhat
• (approximately): about, almost, around, close to, loosely, near, nearly, roughly, round about

Translations

reasonably, somewhat, (fairly)

• Czech: jakž takž
• Finnish: -hko (fi), -hkö (fi)
• German: halbwegs (de), etwas (de), mehr oder weniger

about, approximately

• Finnish: noin (fi)
• French: approximativement (fr), à peu près (fr)
• German: in etwa, rund (de), ungefähr (de)

Etymology 3

From Pitman ess and eff, which it resembles phonetically and graphically, and the sound it represents. The change in vowel probably reflects the familiar suffix -ish.

Noun

ish (plural ishes)

1. The letter which stands for the sh sound /ʃ/ in Pitman shorthand.

Related terms

• esh, the IPA letter for the same sound
• zhee

Etymology 4

Phonetic spelling of the clipping of issue.

Noun

ish (plural ishes)

1. (dated, fandom slang) An instalment of a periodical; an issue.
   • 1939 August 5, "Bob" Tucker, “Archived copy”, in Le Zombie‎^[1], number 10, archived from the original on 24 January 2013, page 3:

     "A LITTLE UNPLEASANTNESS" DEPT: Fantasy Digest says in it's^[sic] latest ish: Quote: Some unpleasantness was caused when Don Wollheim and his brother Futurians were not allowed in the Convention Hall. Unquote.

   • 1961 July, George H. Scithers, Amra, volume 2, number 16, page 2:

     Next ish: a guide to who is who of the Howard heroes in the centerspread.

   • 1967 June, Drake Maynard, If, volume 17, number 6, page 160:

     My sincerest apologies to Brother Ron Smith in the December ish.

Derived terms

• annish
• thish

Etymology 5

Interjection

ish

1. (informal, Canada, US, regional) ick, yuck

Related terms

• ishy

See also

• eesh

Etymology 6

From earlier isht, a minced oath and metathetic alteration of shit. Possibly onomatopoeic from being inspired by the sound of the word shit when backmasked in clean or radio edits of hip-hop songs.

Noun

ish (uncountable)

2. (euphemistic, African-American Vernacular) Shit (in various senses).
   • 2010, Jill Murray, Break On Through, page 15:

     Anyone, really, but seriously, you'd think that people whose very passion depends on their lungs would want to cut that ish out

   • 2012, Dipal Parikh, Walking with Krishna: Based on True Life Events, page 154:

     I owe you a lot Dipal, so put that ish away.

   • 2013, Ivy McQuain, Get Your Head Out of the Clouds, This Is Business, page 25:

     Now, it's time to get your ish together.

   • 2015, Ni-Ni Simone, Amir Abrams, Lights, Love & Lip Gloss, page 51:

     I passed on that craziness. I wasn't messing with that ish.

References

• (Periodical): Jeff Prucher, editor (2007), “ish”, in Brave New Words: The Oxford Dictionary of Science Fiction, Oxford, Oxfordshire; New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, pages 101–102.
• (Periodical): Jesse Sheidlower, editor (2001–2026), “ish n.”, in Historical Dictionary of Science Fiction.

Anagrams

• His, Hsi, IHS, Shi, his, shi

Albanian

Alternative forms

• ush

Etymology

Onomatopoeic.

Interjection

ish

1. used to chase chicken away

Further reading

• Jani Thomai et al. (2006), “ish”, in FGJSH: Fjalor i gjuhës shqipe [Dictionary of the Albanian language] (in Albanian), Tiranë: Akademia e Shkencave e Shqipërisë
• FGJSSH: Fjalor i gjuhës së sotme shqipe [Dictionary of the modern Albanian language]‎^[2], 1980

Scots

Noun

ish

1. issue; liberty of going out

Uzbek

Etymology

Inherited from Proto-Turkic *īĺč.

Noun

ish

1. work

   Synonyms: emgak, mehnat

   xayrli ish ― good job

   mashaqqatli ish ― difficult job

Declension

Declension of ish

	singular	plural
nominative	ish	ishlar
genitive	ishning	ishlarning
dative	ishga	ishlarga
definite accusative	ishni	ishlarni
locative	ishda	ishlarda
ablative	ishdan	ishlardan
similative	ishdek	ishlardek

Possessive forms of ish

1st person singular
	singular	plural
nominative	ishim	ishlarim
genitive	ishimning	ishlarimning
dative	ishimga	ishlarimga
definite accusative	ishimni	ishlarimni
locative	ishimda	ishlarimda
ablative	ishimdan	ishlarimdan
similative	ishimdek	ishlarimdek
2nd person singular
	singular	plural
nominative	ishing	ishlaring
genitive	ishingning	ishlaringning
dative	ishingga	ishlaringga
definite accusative	ishingni	ishlaringni
locative	ishingda	ishlaringda
ablative	ishingdan	ishlaringdan
similative	ishingdek	ishlaringdek
3rd person singular
	singular	plural
nominative	ishi	ishlari
genitive	ishining	ishlarining
dative	ishiga	ishlariga
definite accusative	ishini	ishlarini
locative	ishida	ishlarida
ablative	ishidan	ishlaridan
similative	ishidek	ishlaridek
1st person plural
	singular	plural
nominative	ishimiz	ishlarimiz
genitive	ishimizning	ishlarimizning
dative	ishimizga	ishlarimizga
definite accusative	ishimizni	ishlarimizni
locative	ishimizda	ishlarimizda
ablative	ishimizdan	ishlarimizdan
similative	ishimizdek	ishlarimizdek
2nd person plural
	singular	plural
nominative	ishingiz	ishlaringiz
genitive	ishingizning	ishlaringizning
dative	ishingizga	ishlaringizga
definite accusative	ishingizni	ishlaringizni
locative	ishingizda	ishlaringizda
ablative	ishingizdan	ishlaringizdan
similative	ishingizdek	ishlaringizdek
3rd person plural
	singular	plural
nominative	ishi	ishlari
genitive	ishining	ishlarining
dative	ishiga	ishlariga
definite accusative	ishini	ishlarini
locative	ishida	ishlarida
ablative	ishidan	ishlaridan
similative	ishidek	ishlaridek

Further reading

• “ish“ in izoh.uz