the.com/joss

means A joss is a Chinese religious statue or idol, and by extension the incense sticks burned as offerings before it.

from The word comes from Portuguese 'deos' or 'deus' meaning 'god,' picked up and reshaped by traders and sailors along the China coast into 'joss.' It then settled into English through pidgin trade talk in ports like Macau and Canton, attaching itself to the incense sticks ('joss sticks') burned before temple idols — the smoke carrying prayers upward, the word itself a well-traveled souvenir of centuries of maritime contact.