Kit and caboodle

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Kit and caboodle

Post by Archived Topic » Mon Feb 15, 1999 12:00 am

Do you know the origin of the phrase "the whole kit and caboodle"?
Submitted by Helen Ramsay (Dundas - Canada)
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Kit and caboodle

Post by Jonathon Green » Thu Feb 18, 1999 8:00 am

Kit means simply equipment; caboodle blends the emphatic pfx. 'ker-' with either Du. 'boedel', household effects, and thus one's personal estate, or Scot. 'bodle', a small coin worth two Scot. pence (or one-sixth of an English one) and as such usually glossed as 'worthless'.
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