bushwah en · NOUN · etymology 1
Etymology
Uncertain, first attested in the 1900s. Perhaps from dialectal bodewash (“dried buffalo dung”) or by Etymology 2, from bourgeois. Subsequently used as a minced oath variant of bullshit, though bullshit itself is only attested from the 1910s.
Meanings
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(US, uncountable) Nonsense; euphemistic form of bullshit.
“[…] They’re not taken in by all that socialist bullsh—” He cleared his throat. “Bushwah.”
1983, Theodore V. Olsen, Red is the River, →ISBN, page 102:Oftentimes proof is only in the speaking, but the people listening are pros with tremendous experience in flight, and they can pick out the bushwah instantly.
1991, Martin Caidin, Ghosts of the Air: True Stories of Aerial Hauntings, →ISBN, page 42:These plays, one and all, were either sentimental bushwah or tragic nonsense.
1925, George Jean Nathan, The Autobiography of an Attitude, page 230:This death or glory stuff is all bushwah, except with nuts; and those, you don’t want. An outfit of smart guys, always trying to figure the opposition before the opposition figures them; they can take, any time, any day, an outfit of nuts wound up to crash their planes into something.
1948, James Gould Cozzens, Guard of Honor, page 258:
Synonyms
eyewash · flummery · tommy-rot · jimjam · twaddle · applesauce · bushwah · pie in the sky · horse puckey · folderol · BS · gup · jibber-jabber · drivel · gibber · blah-blah-blah · Bandini · stuff · flapdoodle · santorum · jabber · rigmarole · baloney · doublespeak · crock · macaroni · put-on · jive · shite · bullshit · blather · humbug · framis · nertz · hoax · balls · bunk · moonshine · wass · banana oil · word salad · hocus-pocus · all my eye and Betty Martin · hokum · skimble-skamble · shit · nonsense · garbage · codswallop · horsefeathers · dribble · crock of shit · bobbins · blah-blah · flizz · jargon · garble · fudge · balderdash · rot · clamjamfrey · bullspeak · bulldust · trittle trattle · pigswill · Greek · apple grease · bosh · manure · hooey · bafflegab · bollocks · rhubarb · double Dutch · fiddle-faddle · gash · horseshit · Irish bull · horse cock · flim-flam · bull · bull feathers · junk · meaninglessness · rhubarb rhubarb · horse hockey · guff · blah · rubbish · double talk · tosh · malarkey · gibberish · galimatias · poppycock · bilgewater · absurdity · all my eye · tripe · gossip · jabberwocky · fuckry · batshit · cobblers · foolishness · hogwash · baragouin · whiff-whaff · stuff and nonsense · footle · tush · claptrap · bullcrap · mumbo jumbo · lallation · piffle · blatherskite · bunkum · squit · Gallophone · batcrap · prattle · crap · horse piss · gobbledygook · trash · fuckery · ruse
Translations (1)
ru чепуха (nonsense)