cahoots

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English

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WOTD – 7 July 2024

Etymology

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PIE word
*ḱóm

From earlier cahoot +‎ -s (suffix forming regular plurals of nouns). Cahoot is probably borrowed:[1]

Pronunciation

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Noun

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cahoots pl (normally plural, singular cahoot) (originally US)

  1. Chiefly preceded by in: collaboration or collusion, chiefly for a nefarious reason. [from early 19th c.]
    Synonym: (uncommon) cahoot
    Those two are definitely in cahoots.
    • 1843 November 8, “Letters from the South-west—No. 1”, in H. A. Graves, editor, Christian Reflector: A Religious and Family Newspaper, volume VI, number 45 (number 279 overall), Boston, Mass.: William S[hapleigh] Damrell, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 1, column 2:
      There was no stage on the road, and no vehicle in the place except these mighty wagons. Accordingly I struck a bargain with a wagoner, who took my baggage. 'You may go with me,' said he, 'but may-be you can't go cahoots with me in my eatin' fixin's, stranger.'
    • 1888, Bret Harte, “Uncle Jim and Uncle Billy”, in Stories in Light and Shadow; The Argonauts of North Liberty (The Works of Bret Harte; XIII), Argonaut edition, New York, N.Y.: P[eter] F[enelon] Collier & Son, →OCLC, page 65:
      Like as not, Uncle Billy is still in ‘cahoots’ [i.e., shares] with his old pard, and is just laughin’ at us as he’s sendin’ him accounts of our tomfoolin’.
    • 1926 August 21, Henry C. Rowland, “Twin Propellers. Chapter XI.”, in George Horace Lorimer, editor, The Saturday Evening Post, volume 199, number 8, Philadelphia, Pa., London: Curtis Publishing Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 51, column 2:
      […] I suspected him of being in cahoots with the steward, who got the lights doused long enough for the pearls to be stolen.
    • 1928 March, “Trouble in Guaduragua”, in The North American Review, volume CCXXV, number 841, New York, N.Y.: North American Review Corporation, →ISSN, →OCLC, pages 371–372:
      Now it came to pass that the President of the Republic of Guaduragua was suspected of being in cahoots with a Juju society, of consulting astrologers, and of being under the undue influence of a designing woman; whereupon the Guaduraguan Parliament thought it well to investigate the matter, and came together on its own initiative for that purpose. […] [I]t was not in Guaduragua at all that the comedy was enacted, but in one of the Sovereign Commonwealths of the United States of America.
    • 1990, John Updike, Rabbit at Rest (A Borzoi Book), New York, N.Y.: Alfred A[braham] Knopf, →ISBN, page 74:
      They probably give it back to him; they're all in cahoots.
    • 2005, Steven D[avid] Levitt, Stephen J[oseph] Dubner, “How is the Ku Klux Klan Like a Group of Real-estate Agents? In which is Argued that Nothing is More Powerful than Information, Especially when Its Power is Abused”, in Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything, New York, N.Y.: William Morrow, →ISBN, page 58:
      The Klan was in cahoots with political, business, and law-enforcement leaders.
    • 2022 June 6, A[nthony] O[liver] Scott, “Critic’s notebook: Are the movies liberal?”, in The New York Times‎[1], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-04-17:
      [A] sense of grievance and victimization has come to permeate the modern conservative identity. […] In this account, Hollywood acts in functional cahoots with academia and the news media, and what drives the populism of Republican politicians like Ron DeSantis in Florida and J[ames] D[avid] Vance in Ohio is full-throated opposition to those institutions.
  2. (uncommon) plural of cahoot (“a company or partnership; a group of people working together, chiefly for a nefarious reason, hence, a collaboration or collusion; an accomplice, partner”)

Alternative forms

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Derived terms

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Translations

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Verb

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cahoots

  1. third-person singular simple present indicative of cahoot

References

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  1. ^ “cahoot, n.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, December 2023; “cahoots, plural n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Further reading

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Anagrams

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