“She was in cahoots with a doctor.” That’s a line from “Murder Must Wait,” a 1953 detective novel. It’s a pretty typical line; I don’t know how many novels in the crime fiction genre include “…in cahoots with…” but I bet it’s in the hundreds, at least. Being “in cahoots” with somebody means partnering with them, with the implication that both of you are most likely up to no good. But then again, what’s a “cahoot,” and how can you be in one with somebody but nobody ever seems to be in a cahoot all by themselves?
The word is not particularly old, as words go; it seems to have appeared around the early 1800s in the southern US, possibly somewhere around New Orleans. And that, as they say in detective novels, is a clue! New Orleans has more French influences than most of the rest of the US, and if you follow the leads in that direction, you find that there’s a French word, “cahute” that means a cabin. A cabin seems like something you could be inside. With somebody. Where the two of you might hatch your nefarious plan free from prying eyes and listening ears.
It’s not completely certain that “cahoots” comes from “cahute;” somebody may have managed to cover his tracks pretty well in this case. But it’s a pretty good supposition, at least.
If you look it up in “Bartlett’s Quotations,” you’ll find a different idea, that “cahoots” comes from “cohort.” That could, of course, be a red herring planted on purpose to throw us off the trail — but on the other hand, that could be true of “cahute” too.
In crime fiction, a big step is usually turning over a case to the District Attorney — the DA. Then it eventually winds up in front of a jury. Maybe what we need to settle some of these question is a DE — District Etymologist. And, of course, a jury.
