# the whole kit and caboodle **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 23, 2000, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-whole-kit-and-caboodle/9113 "2000-03-23T16:02:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Rhythmdvl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2000, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-whole-kit-and-caboodle/9113/1 "2000-03-23T16:02:00Z")
Does anyone know a caboodle is, and why it includes everything not included in the original kit? * * * Once in a while you can get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right… ---
**Author:** ![Ursa\_Major](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/a88e57/32.png) [@Ursa\_Major](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ursa_Major)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2000, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-whole-kit-and-caboodle/9113/2 "2000-03-23T16:09:00Z")
The best definition I can think of for caboodle is “the lot of it” or the whole mess. In other words “the whole kit and caboodle” means pretty much the same as just “caboodle”. Kinda the way “Everybody and their grandmother” means the same as just “Everybody”. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2000, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-whole-kit-and-caboodle/9113/3 "2000-03-23T16:29:00Z")
Wasn’t Kitten Kaboodle a stripper in the 50’s? * * * TT “It is better to know some of the questions than all of the answers.” –James Thurber ---
**Author:** ![Alphagene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Alphagene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alphagene)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2000, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-whole-kit-and-caboodle/9113/4 "2000-03-23T16:31:00Z")
> [@](#): > > “Kit and caboodle” (which is the most common form) dates back to the mid-eighteenth century and appeared first in England. There are a number of variants, including “kit and kerboodle” and “kit and boodle.” The “kit” part of the phrase is of fairly straightforward origin, “kit” being an 18th century English slang term for “outfit” or “collection,” as in a soldier’s “kit bag,” which contained all his worldly possessions. “Kit” may have come from “kith,” meaning “estate,” found today in the phrase “kith and kin.” > > “Caboodle” is a tougher nut to crack. As usual, there are a number of theories, the most likely of which traces “boodle” back to the Dutch word “boedel,” meaning “property.” Lawyers take note: “boodle” actually was a respectable word in its own right (meaning “estate”) in the 17th and 18th centuries, and was even used in legal documents. But why “caboodle” or “kerboodle”? The “ca” and “ker” may be related to the intensive German prefix “ge,” giving the sense “the whole boodle.” Put it all together and you get “kit and caboodle,” meaning “everything and all of everything,” down to the last kitten. [Kit and caboodle](http://www.word-detective.com/093098.html#kitandcaboodle) * * * **Gypsy** : Tom, I don’t get you. **Tom Servo** : Nobody does. I’m the wind, baby. ---
**Author:** ![Beruang](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/77aa72/32.png) [@Beruang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beruang)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2000, 6:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-whole-kit-and-caboodle/9113/5 "2000-03-25T06:57:00Z")
And from Random House: =================== Kit and caboodle is simply a set phrase made up of two words that are both rare when used independently of each other. Kit is the same word as the one meaning ‘a set of items for a specific purpose’ (as in “tool kit”), but in this phrase is used broadly to mean ‘a group of persons or things’. Caboodle is the word “boodle” meaning ‘a lot; pack; crowd; large quantity’, with a variant of the intensive prefix “ker-” (as in kerplunk or gazillion–the prefix appears in many forms). The entire phrase the whole kit and caboodle, as it usually appears, is therefore rather redundant. This use of a set phrase whose elements are individually unfamiliar (and are often synonyms) has many parallels in English. One example is time and tide, “tide” being an archaic word for ‘time’; another is the legal phrase without let or hindrance. Caboodle is first found in the mid-nineteenth century and is now rarely found alone. The phrase kit and caboodle is first found later in the nineteenth century. Both are Americanisms. =================== * * * “The dawn of a new era is felt and not measured.” Walter Lord