Kitty

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Dear Word Detective: What is the origin of the word “kitty” when used to mean a “collection of cash between several people”? — Alan West.

Good question. I’m more familiar with the plural form, “kitties,” which are small hairy creatures that collect cash from your pocket in return for shredding your furniture and sleeping in the sink.

But most of us are also familiar with a “kitty” in the sense you mean. Among the delights (cough, cough) of working in a large office, as I did for many years, are the incessant collections of such “kitties” to throw office birthday parties for people you’ve never met. After a while you begin to wonder if Larry in the fax room even exists. The only certainty is that if you fail to kick in a buck or two, you’ll never get another fax. “Kitty” is also often used as a synonym for the “pot” of money at stake in a poker or other card game.

Since I mentioned cats, the first step in our kitty-quest is to note that “kitty” in the “money” sense has no connection to “kitty” in the cat sense, a form of “kitten,” which in turn is derived from the French “chaton,” the diminutive of “chat” (cat). And although, as fans of “Gunsmoke” will remember, Miss Kitty was often seen hovering in the vicinity of poker games in the saloon, her moniker was simply a derivative (along with “Kate” and “Katy”) of the name “Katherine,” and thus unrelated to either gambling or cats.

Now as to the origin of “kitty” in the “collected money” sense, which first appeared in the late 19th century, the Oxford English Dictionary has an interesting theory, tracing it to “kidcote,” a dialect term from northern England for a prison. The OED is silent on the exact logic of this “kitty-kidcote” connection, but Michael Quinion (at the excellent www.worldwidewords.org) notes a related theory that the money in a gambling “kitty” is “locked up” for the duration of the game as if it were in prison. Mr. Quinion rates this theory as not credible, and I agree.

Far more likely is a connection between “kitty” and “kit,” an 18th century English slang term for “outfit” or “collection,” also found in a soldier’s “kit bag” and “kit and caboodle” meaning “a collection of everything.”