English
kit
Kit comes from Middle Dutch kitte ‘a wooden vessel made of hooped staves’.
- Middle Dutchc. 1150–1500kitte1‘a wooden vessel made of hooped staves’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500kyt1
- Englishearliest quotation 1818kit1
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
- 1 Wiktionary, English kit
- Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1818, Reports, Great Britain. Parliament. House of Lords: “Do you know the proportion between ten and twelve…”.
Lineage
- Middle Dutchc. 1150–1500kitteWiktionary, English kit‘a wooden vessel made of hooped staves’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500kytWiktionary, English kit
- Englishearliest quotation 1818kitWiktionary, English kit. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1818, Reports, Great Britain. Parliament. House of Lords: “Do you know the proportion between ten and twelve…”
The story
The further etymology is unknown.uncertain The source flags this step as uncertain. Perhaps from Proto-Germanic *kitjō-, *kut-, which would be related to the root of Dutch kot (‘ramshackle house’), itself of non-Indo-European origin. The transfer of meaning to the contents of a soldier's knapsack dates to the late 18th century, extended use of any collection of necessaries used for travelling dates to the first half of the 19th century. The further widening of the sense to a collection of parts sold for the buyer to assemble emerges in American English in the mid 20th century.
Linked words
through Middle Dutch kitte ‘a wooden vessel made of hooped staves’
Another origin of kit
- Germanc. 1650–presentkitte
- Englishtodaykit
Today it means
noun A circular wooden vessel, made of hooped staves.
Sources
Sources: Wiktionary, “kit”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.
Etymograph / Middle Dutch kitte / kit