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Published 13:18 IST, November 11th 2022

Elon Musk curious about 'tosh' after UK minister seeks fake news elimination on Twitter

The new Twitter owner, Elon Musk, who bought the platform to take it to another level, replied to the UK minister by asking him what the word "tosh" means.

Reported by: Sagar Kar
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Image: AP | Image: self

On Wednesday, an "announcement" from Chris Heaton-Harris, the Northern Ireland secretary, stating that he was resigning became a talking point. The announcement was made from an "official" Northern Ireland Office. There was just one issue, the account that made that statement was not actually the Northern Ireland's office, but one impersonating it.

“I have had the honour of serving as secretary of state for Northern Ireland; however, due to personal reasons I am stepping down from my role,” the statement announcing Heaton-Harris' resignation read, as per The Guardian. The Northern Ireland Office issued a rapid statement to clarify that the statement was false.

Chris Heaton-Harris had to tweet his own clarification, asking the new Twitter owner Elon Musk to combat the spread of fake news on his platform. 

UK minister calls the news of his resignation "utter tosh"

"Hello Twitter! Someone has sent a fake email to press outlets saying I’ve resigned. This is totally untrue. I hope one of @elonmusk first moves is to eliminate fake news on Twitter… Very exciting I know, but complete and utter tosh," the UK minister wrote.

The new Twitter owner, Elon Musk, who bought the platform to take it to another level, ignored the query, and only replied by asking what 'tosh' looks like. 

While it was unclear if the Tesla CEO was indeed clueless about the word or taking some sort of a jibe, Twitter users responded to Musk's query by defining what "tosh" means. One user responded by writing, "Very similar to a codswallop"; another user wrote, “A slightly grittier form of piffle. Not dissimilar to hogwash."

A good synonym of "tosh" for an American English speaker would be "baloney". In common parlance, one might say 'nonsense', to replace tosh, as both have a similar meaning.

The Concise Oxford dictionary says that the word "tosh" means "nonsense" or "rubbish". "Ideas, statements or beliefs that you think are silly or not true," adds the dictionary. The word's origin goes back to the 19th century. 

Later, Heaton-Harris also shared a screenshot of a Google search result for the word 'tosh' which defined it as a 'word to dismiss something as a bunch of nonsense.'

Updated 13:22 IST, November 11th 2022