boodle: possessions or money, especially ill-gotten gains
Boodle is one of the earliest Americanisms, first appearing in a Mayor's Court report in the Albany City Record of 1699. The word comes from Dutch boedel, signifying possessions or an estate. By the nineteenth century, boodle had broadened to mean money generally, especially money with questionable origins. It was a jargon term for counterfeit money. Harper's Weekly for April 3, 1858 says, "Boodle is a flash term used by counterfeiters . . ."
An even more common nineteenth-century usage was in reference to the ill-gotten gains of political corruption. An 1884 issue of The Magazine of American History explains, "Boodle . . . has come to mean a large roll of bills such as political managers are supposed to divide among their retainers." Other forms of the word used in connection with crooked politicians were boodlers, boodleizing, boodleistic, boodlery, and the verb to boodle. An 1887 Nation editorial declares disgustedly, "New York is better known all over the . . . world for boodle Aldermen and municipal rings than for anything else." By the early twentieth century, the political meaning of boodle had virtually disappeared. It's now used to mean any kind of contraband, often with a joking overtone, for example brownies stolen from the kitchen counter.
A second meaning of boodle—a crowd or a pack—appeared around the 1850s. It was most often heard in the expression "the whole kit and boodle," now modernized to "the whole kit and caboodle." This boodle appears to be unrelated to the original Dutch boedel. One possibility is that it comes from Middle English bottel, meaning a bundle of hay. (Kit is a British word for the uniform and other equipment used by soldiers or sports players.)