joss

nounattested in dialogue

United Kingdom//dʒɒs//
United States//dʒɔs//
//dʒɑs//

A Chinese household divinity; a Chinese idol.

noun

1
A Chinese household divinity; a Chinese idol.
2
A heathen divinity.
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
informalLuck.
She had twisted a piece of heather into her mail box for good joss, and this was the safety signal.

Etymology

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”). Doublet of Tiw and Tyr.

Forms

plural: josses

Josh · A diminutive of the male given name Joshua.Joshua · The sixth book of the Old Testament of the Bible, and a book…Josie · A diminutive of the female given name Josephine.

joss · A Chinese household divinity; a Chinese idol.

Joss · A unisex given name A diminutive of the female given name…journal · A diary or daily record of a person, organization, vessel…journalism · The aggregating, writing, editing, and presenting of news or…

The neighbouring pages — Alphabetical order follows the rules of the language, not byte values: an accent decides only between two otherwise identical words, and Spanish files Ñ as a letter of its own.