Kibitz and Kaboodlniks

The elementary students are learning a new card game by the makers of UNO, called Kaboodl. The game has k'bosh and k'baam cards, and apparently quite a bit of strategy. I got confused just listening from the other end of the play room, but occasionally was able to offer up unhelpful comments!

Mostly, I started wondering how k'bosh is usually spelled, and where the word originated. From there on, a thick cover of alien vines began to grow all over my mind. Would I be able to get home to my trusty dictionary before I went kaput?

"Here I come to save the day," as Andy Kaufman might sing. Dictionary Woman is on the way!

• kibosh is a restraint or check, used primarily in the phrase put the kibosh on, similar to quietus [origin unknown]
• kaboodle is actually caboodle, and means the lot, group, or bunch. Used chiefly in the phrase the whole kit and caboodle. [perhaps ca-, probably short for kith or kit + boodle.]
• boodle is slang for money, especially counterfeit money, or money accepted as a bribe. Boodle can also be stolen goods; swag. [From Dutch boedel, estate, effects, from Middle Dutch bodel, riches, property...]
• kith Friends and neighbors, as opposed to kin.
• kit... among many definitions a container such as a box, bag, valise, or knapsack.... [Middle English kytt, kitt, wooden tub, from Middle Dutch kitte, jug, tankard.] So on that note, let us lift one! This can't get much more muddled.
• kibitzer 1. An onlooker at a card game who gives unwanted advice to the players. 2. Any meddler who offers gratuitous advice.
• kibitz To act as a kibitzer. [Yiddish kibitsen, from German kiebitzen, to look on, from Kiebitz, lapwing, plover, hence a meddlesome person, looker on (at a card game), from Middle High German gibiz, plover (imitative of its cry).]
• killdeer a widespread and familiar American plover.

• kibbutz a collective farm or settlement in modern Israel [Hebrew from qibbetz, he gathered]
• kibbutznik a member of a kibbutz
• Kibbles 'n Bits a dry dog food made by Del Monte.
• kibble coarsely ground grain in the form of pellets (as for pet food); coarsely ground foodstuff; especially seeds of various cereal grasses.
• quibble To make exaggerated distinctions or raise objections to the unimportant details of a thing in order to avoid acknowledging its worth or importance.

"Shish," you are probably saying as you raise your hand to object to all these unimportant, yet intertwined details.

• kebab see Shish kebab A dish consisting of pieces of seasoned meat roasted and served with condiments on skewers. [Turkish sis , skewer + kebap roast meat]
• kaput destroyed; wrecked [German kaputt, from French capot, as in the expression etre capot, to have lost all tricks at cards, "be hoodwinked," from capot, cloak with a hood, from cape]*
• kaboom an exclamation representing an explosive sound or event [I'm embarrassed to admit I couldn't find an origin]

• kudzu a vine, Pueraria lobata, native to Japan having compound leaves and clusters of reddish-purple flowers and grown for fodder and forage, and known as an ECOLOGICAL THREAT. Kudzu kills or degrades other plants by smothering them under a solid blanket of leaves, by girdling woody stems and tree trunks, and by breaking branches or uprooting entire trees and shrubs through the sheer force of its weight. Once established, Kudzu plants grow rapidly, extending as much as 60 feet per season at a rate of about one foot per day.

Kaboodl is suitable for 2 to 6 players age 7 and up.



*And now here is a Hoodwink
Who winks in his wink-hood.
Without a good wink-hood
A Hoodwink can't wink good.
And, folks, let me tell you
There's only one circus
With wink-hooded Hoodwinks!
The Circus McGurkus!

© 2008 Nancy L. Ruder