A load of old tosh

Origin

The word "tosh" itself emerged in British slang around the late 19th or early 20th century, a delightful little word born from the fertile ground of Cockney rhyming slang or perhaps even earlier variants of "tush," which referred to a trifle. Initially, it served as a catch-all for anything worthless or trivial, often used to describe low-value coinage or insignificant matters. However, it wasn't until it was paired with the emphatic "load of old" that it truly blossomed into its current form, transforming into a pithy, dismissive declaration of utter rubbish or nonsense. It’s a phrase that perfectly encapsulates a particularly British disdain for pretentiousness or anything perceived as completely valueless, delivered with a satisfying, almost theatrical flourish.