From A Hog on Ice and Other Curious Expressions by Charles Earle Funk:

to put the kibosh on

To put an end to; to stop; to dispose of. One thinks of this as being modem slang, in use only a few years, but readers of Dickens, if they remember Sketches by Boz, may recall the sketch, "Seven Dials." This is a description of a squalid locality in London, so benighted that even the "ladies" were usually engaged in fisticuffs. One such battle was egged on by a young potboy, who, as Dickens wrote it, roared to one of the "ladies," "Hooroar, put the kye-bosk on her, Mary!" That sketch was published back in 1836, so our "modem slang" is somewhat more than a hundred years old.

There has been considerable speculation about the origin of the word "kibosh." A correspondent to Notes & Queries some years ago advanced the theory that it was of Yiddish origin meaning eighteen pence, and began as a term used in auctions, as an increase in a bid. Recently, another correspondent to the same publication suggested that it may be a corruption of the Italian capuce, a tin lid, and that it may have been employed by street vendors of ice cream - "Put the kibosh on," meant to put the lid back on the container.

But I am indebted to Padraic Colum, well-known Irish author, for what I take to be the true explanation. In a letter to me he says: " 'Kibosh,' I believe, means 'the cap of death' and it is always used in that sense - 'He put the kibosh on it.' In Irish it could be written 'de bais' - the last word pronounced 'bosh,' the genitive of 'bas,' death."

(My Dad used to use this one all the time. I accepted it as a Brooklynism. – Wes)

spick and span

For the past two hundred years we have been using this to mean very trim and smart, thoroughly neat and orderly, having the appearance of newness, but for the two hundred years preceding that, or from the middle of the sixteenth century to the middle of the eighteenth century, the phrase was always "spick and span new," and had no other meaning than absolutely and wholly new.

The phrase has had an interesting history. It started, so far as the records show, about 1300 as just "span-new," meaning perfectly new, or as new as a freshly cut chip, for "span," in olden days, meant a chip. At that time, chips were used for spoons, so "span-new" really meant a newly cut spoon, one that had not yet been soiled by use.

"Spick" was not added until late in the sixteenth century, presumably for no better reason than alliteration. A "spick" really meant a splinter, or, also, a spike. Actually, it had no particular meaning when added to "span-new," but it would be interesting if I could say that the original purpose of the "spick," or splinter, was to impale meat, as we use a fork today, when the "span" was laid aside.