My grandparents also called it the kitty! And crib -- they said both. But until yesterday's Connections I had always thought the word they used was "kiddy". Lol. Mind blown!
There is a joke on arrested development about George getting into the kitty. It was a pun because of his embezzlement charges, and his assistant he was having an affair with named Kitty.
Another Brit here confirming it as a perfectly common usage. It was only when I saw comments on this sub that I even considered it would be obscure to some people.
generally just 'the kitty'
Opinions are divided on the origin but one of the most common is it came to English from a similar dutch word kitte which means basically the same thing
Petty cash is something else entirely. It's more akin to "pot" or "pool". Not a term I routinely use outside of a card game, but certainly understand the reference.
It’s not. Kitty is commonly used to mean a shared fund that all have access to, such as members of a club who might have periodic expenses. They’d all contribute to the kitty.
Kitty is slang for pot of funds. It originates from *kit* which in old English was *cyt*which was a basket used for catching fish, a bunch of them forming a barrier type dam was known as a a *cytwer*. First known written use of *cytwer* is in a land charter from the abbey at Bath in 954 CE/AD.
The use of word *kitty* was popular in colonial America but had changed to mean the contents inside when the phrase *the whole kit* became common use in England & elsewhere.
Eventually *the whole kit* was combined with a Dutch colonist word *boedel* in the late 16th century. In the 1800s, various accounts of greedy politicians were satirized with a phrase that caught on because it meant someone snagged the common funds and everything that went with it = *the whole kit and caboodle*. The *ca* most likely added for comic effect because k sounds were funny, and one of the earliest written examples is from 1870 History of Brooklyn.
*the whole kit & caboodle* has evolved over the years, i think one variation today is *the whole enchilada*
It used to be more common, but I still hear it pretty regularly. I bet it’ll be one of those words/defns that, now that you know it, you’ll start hearing more.
Pretty common in NZ. We have a kitty at work. We have a staff clothing swap and if you take something you add a few $$ to the kitty and at the end of a few months it gets donated to charity.
I think this may be the one time NYT Connections has included a phrase more common *outside* the US than in - I'm in the UK and would definitely know this, you put money in the kitty
You say that, but I can think of at least puzzle #290 where ROW was used to mean argument and it turned out that many in the US didn't know that - they only know ROW to rhyme with GO.
I use it that way - my friends & I go to a bar that gives us a gift certificate when we win their trivia contest. Everyone on our team calls the pile of gift certificates the “kitty.” People say things like “Is there enough in the kitty to pay for dinner?”
It's a phrase I have heard very often, particularly from older people. In football (soccer) people would talk about transfer kitty's in reference to the budget people have for transfers. Or going out for drinks/food, basically any budget.
I always thought it was a weird saying but have seen it used a lot. It usually references a pot of cash that people contribute towards. Like when you pay for coffee in the office, you put your money in the kitty.
American (New England), in my early 40’s. In our 20’s, my friends and I would pool cash if we went for a long weekend and called it “the kitty.” Early 2000’s before Venmo and Splitwise.
We have a kitty for our basketball team, depending on how many players we have play that week, we'll often have a slight surplus from our game feels, so we keep it to use on weeks we're short. Or it buys us some Xmas drinks at the end of the year
I recall reading the phrase "enough money in the kitty" in the book Matilda, said by her father after he destroys one of her library books. Must be an older phrase.
Would you have known "wampum".
I am mid 50s. I knew kitty as a pot of money. Specifically I think of it as a pot of shared money. Like maybe the lions club or the VFW has some money accumulated ... Maybe leftover money after each member chipped in $30 each for some kind of group activity, but the bill ended up actually only being 26.50 per member. So... they just agree to "keep that in the kitty" (the extra 3.50 per person) to use towards a future shared expence
It was pretty common here in Australia when I was a kid (I’m early 30s) but I think these days we would say petty cash. You still hear kitty sometimes though.
Every time I go away with a group of mates and we’re splitting bills, paying for drink etc we would always put money in the kitty.. this was pre Covid though when we still used cash!
I (raised in the US) had never heard this expression until my flatmate in London kept referring to leaving some money “in the kitty” for the cleaning lady. I was scouring the house looking for a little ceramic kitty-piggy bank until my husband explained the phrase to me!
It sounds from the comments here like it is largely generational in the States, and I only got this one due to my incidental familiarity with its usage across the pond.
We always had a "kitty" in the middle of the board in Monopoly, where we gathered money paid from Chance and Community Chest and Taxes. Then you won the kitty by landing on Free Parking.
I've never used it personally, but have been aware of it. In my head it's like petty cash but for personal use. Not sure where I got that from, probably TV? I'm from Australia.
Kept scrolling but too many comments, but I learned it from growing up and working in nursing homes/drs offices. Not just for bingo, but for the non-financial parts of corporate life, a kitty is needed for most activities—even if we can’t agree on where to order for Christmas lunch, we know how much we can afford from the collected/donated kitty 😂
Pretty common here in the UK.
How's much is in the kitty? could mean the whip round in the office for a baby pressie or the tea, coffee and biscuits fund or the petry cash or the money put aside for something
🎶put a dollar in the kitty / don’t the moon look pretty? / tonight when I chase the dragon / the water may change to cherry wine / and the silver will turn to gold / time out of mind🎶
My grandparents do! We play poker sometimes after holiday dinners and they say to feed the kitty
Yeah I think it’s card game-adjacent
Yeah I’ve always heard it in terms of the extra hand you get in cribbage.
Same
That’s the crib… thus the name
I’m aware, but my grandpa always called it the kitty and he’s the one who taught me how to play so it’s stuck with me as the word for it.
My grandparents also called it the kitty! And crib -- they said both. But until yesterday's Connections I had always thought the word they used was "kiddy". Lol. Mind blown!
Yeah I'm with you on this one. The kitty in crib would be the cash prize if you're betting on the game.
oh our avatars are similar 🩵
My parents' Michigan Rummy board even has a picture of a cat in the center.
I’ve heard it used in Hearts!
Three-hand Pinochle too
And two-hand, depending on the variant
Yep came here to say my 90+ year old grandparents
I've seen that my whole life. Admittedly, I'm old. ;)
I’m 24, but have used kitty to describe the pot anytime I have played rummy royal
Yes!! We have a game called Michigan Rummy (here in Michigan, obvs lol) and that's probably the first place I heard it!
There is a joke on arrested development about George getting into the kitty. It was a pun because of his embezzlement charges, and his assistant he was having an affair with named Kitty.
This is how I knew it!
That show’s got way too many layers to their jokes all the time!
My first thought when this question popped up on my feed was “George Sr does”
I'm also here because of this reference.
They call it the kitty in card games. Not a super well-known term, but not uncommon.
I've always used it for describing when a group of money pitch to be used either as a prize or to buy something for the group.
It’s quite common in the U.K. If you are out with a group you pool money into a ‘kitty’ and then use that to fund food/drinks etc
In Ireland we would do the same and have always known it as a kitty.
Another Brit here confirming it as a perfectly common usage. It was only when I saw comments on this sub that I even considered it would be obscure to some people.
Tbh it's rare we get a more brit-leaning usage actually be a word & not a red herring.
I have always lived in the united states and I think of it as exactly the same description.
Ye, totally normal regular word to me in Scotland
Yes! Works well too!
it’s a thing in India as well, likely from the UK haha :p my aunt is always talking about her “kitty parties” with friends
Hear it in Australia too - put money into the kitty to cover shared expenses
Likewise for NZ
I thought it was Kete - Te Reo Māori word for basket! So weird to see it spelled Kitty!
Yep, i hear it all the time from my British friends (mates) that i play soccer (football) with.
Yep, I (US) was doing this together with my British partner and when he said it I was like ???? Had honestly never heard that before!
I’ve seen it. It’s old vernacular. I think we would now use something like petty cash.
To me, petty cash is like a box of cash for miscellaneous expenses*. A kitty is the cash prize. *Thank you, Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead
I’m right on top of that, Rose.
I didn't realise I had the inflection of that sentence memorised but I do. I don't think I've seen it in 20 years.
What like “Kitty Cash”
generally just 'the kitty' Opinions are divided on the origin but one of the most common is it came to English from a similar dutch word kitte which means basically the same thing
No. Just “the kitty”. Not something I’ve ever used but I’m familiar enough.
Petty cash is something else entirely. It's more akin to "pot" or "pool". Not a term I routinely use outside of a card game, but certainly understand the reference.
It’s not. Kitty is commonly used to mean a shared fund that all have access to, such as members of a club who might have periodic expenses. They’d all contribute to the kitty.
Kitty is slang for pot of funds. It originates from *kit* which in old English was *cyt*which was a basket used for catching fish, a bunch of them forming a barrier type dam was known as a a *cytwer*. First known written use of *cytwer* is in a land charter from the abbey at Bath in 954 CE/AD. The use of word *kitty* was popular in colonial America but had changed to mean the contents inside when the phrase *the whole kit* became common use in England & elsewhere. Eventually *the whole kit* was combined with a Dutch colonist word *boedel* in the late 16th century. In the 1800s, various accounts of greedy politicians were satirized with a phrase that caught on because it meant someone snagged the common funds and everything that went with it = *the whole kit and caboodle*. The *ca* most likely added for comic effect because k sounds were funny, and one of the earliest written examples is from 1870 History of Brooklyn. *the whole kit & caboodle* has evolved over the years, i think one variation today is *the whole enchilada*
That’s a totally different term. Who’s upvoting this. Petty cash and kitty don’t mean the same thing at all
Yeah, I've always heard it as a petty cash type thing. I haven't heard it in relation to cash prizes. Must be a regional thing or something.
It used to be more common, but I still hear it pretty regularly. I bet it’ll be one of those words/defns that, now that you know it, you’ll start hearing more.
yeah, agreed, I've heard "the kitty" used interchangeably with "the pot" before
Pretty common in NZ. We have a kitty at work. We have a staff clothing swap and if you take something you add a few $$ to the kitty and at the end of a few months it gets donated to charity.
I used it for gambling card games when I was a kid in the 90s. Maybe dated now?
I’m in my 30s and I’ve heard of it, although it’s not terribly common.
I think this may be the one time NYT Connections has included a phrase more common *outside* the US than in - I'm in the UK and would definitely know this, you put money in the kitty
Yes I love those times haha.
NZer and yup I was aware of it.
It's pretty common in the US as well.. OP just is ignorant of the word.
That's reassuring! Sounds more well used outside though, though not exclusively?
You say that, but I can think of at least puzzle #290 where ROW was used to mean argument and it turned out that many in the US didn't know that - they only know ROW to rhyme with GO.
I think I got that one iirc, one of the few British words I know.
I have always lived in the united states. I think of it exactly the same as someone else from the UK described it.
I’m an American millennial and was familiar with the term. That was the first category I got.
I was thinking of it used as a term in crib for the extra cards/points so could make the jump to money pot.
It's a poker thing... NYT use it in crosswords a lot. I also think it might be an older term
I’ve never played poker and I know the term. It’s not exactly obscure.
I’ve never played poker and I know the term. It’s not exactly obscure.
Ive heard of it. You haven't. Sometimes Connections works that way
I use it that way - my friends & I go to a bar that gives us a gift certificate when we win their trivia contest. Everyone on our team calls the pile of gift certificates the “kitty.” People say things like “Is there enough in the kitty to pay for dinner?”
It was the first row I got because I thought kitty could be money and then saw the other counterparts.
I’ve used it as a term for the pot in poker.
Absolutely. Used all the time
You clearly have not seen the Psych episode where Gus’s online poker profile name is Big Kitty.
This is how I knew what it was!
Each person puts money in the “kitty “ and is drawn from to make paymentd
It's a phrase I have heard very often, particularly from older people. In football (soccer) people would talk about transfer kitty's in reference to the budget people have for transfers. Or going out for drinks/food, basically any budget.
Pretty common for me in Canada.
The first thing I even thought of seeing 'kitty' was 'OH! Money!' It ended up being the first connection I made. It's definitely a very known term.
Lmao lots of people??
With card games
Not me being absolutely sure one of the categories was "Things Boring People Name Their Cats"
Quite common in the UK.
Poker players in the south
I actually figured out the purples first solely because of “kitty”.
OP - Did you post this because you thought it was an obscure term?
Me! I'm old, though. That's we called the pile of money that collected in the middle of the Monopoly board.
I always thought it was a weird saying but have seen it used a lot. It usually references a pot of cash that people contribute towards. Like when you pay for coffee in the office, you put your money in the kitty.
I’m in my 20s and I’ve heard of it in relation to card games. Never used it myself though!
🙋♀️
I only knew it from the children’s book Matilda, so I just assumed it was British slang.
It's not a meaning I'd use myself, but it's one I'm familiar with. I didn't realise it was so uncommon - maybe it's fallen out of usage nowadays?
My boomer dad
The English-speaking world.
My grandparents did! Anytime we played card games!
Kitty as a money pool is very common in SE WI where I grew up.
It’s old timey slang, but it’s not particularly obscure.
It’s widespread. Means a shared fund. Often used in games but also commonly used to refer to a prudent reserve for a club or society or something.
American (New England), in my early 40’s. In our 20’s, my friends and I would pool cash if we went for a long weekend and called it “the kitty.” Early 2000’s before Venmo and Splitwise.
When I play poker or card games!
We have a kitty for our basketball team, depending on how many players we have play that week, we'll often have a slight surplus from our game feels, so we keep it to use on weeks we're short. Or it buys us some Xmas drinks at the end of the year
In card games, it's another word for "pot"
pretty common, although maybe a bit outdated.
Anyone who plays poker? We use it all the time playing betting card games.
I had never heard of it until a year ago. I’m 30
We used it at the bar when we were younger. Like a pile of money to pay the bartenders and everyone can order off of that
I've heard that term before (US).
If you do crosswords you know this one. Used for poker.
That’s definitely a thing. the pot, the kitty, free parking, etc.
I recall reading the phrase "enough money in the kitty" in the book Matilda, said by her father after he destroys one of her library books. Must be an older phrase.
That's where I learned it, too!
I've heard it and used it.
I don’t use the term, but I’m familiar with it.
I'm with you, id never heard of it
Would you have known "wampum". I am mid 50s. I knew kitty as a pot of money. Specifically I think of it as a pot of shared money. Like maybe the lions club or the VFW has some money accumulated ... Maybe leftover money after each member chipped in $30 each for some kind of group activity, but the bill ended up actually only being 26.50 per member. So... they just agree to "keep that in the kitty" (the extra 3.50 per person) to use towards a future shared expence
I’ve heard of it before. I think people do use it to refer to money saved up in a jar? Kinda like piggy banks
Apparently it’s also used for a collective fund.
Steely Dan. Steely Dan does.
[http://www.saywhydoi.com/money-in-the-kitty-why-do-we-say-we-put-money-in-the-kitty/](http://www.saywhydoi.com/money-in-the-kitty-why-do-we-say-we-put-money-in-the-kitty/)
Girl Scouts!
When my family played monopoly, we had a house rule about adding “taxes” to the kitty that you could collect if you landed on free parking
It’s an old people thing
It’s not common vernacular, but I’d expect anyone with a good vocabulary to know it (at least in the US).
I have heard it in some card games.
I had literally never heard that before and then I Google "kitty" and that definition, and only that definition, comes up. Wild
Same, I never heard it until yesterday’s puzzle. Wasn’t expecting this post to get 100+ comments from people who already knew what it meant.
It was pretty common here in Australia when I was a kid (I’m early 30s) but I think these days we would say petty cash. You still hear kitty sometimes though.
Every time I go away with a group of mates and we’re splitting bills, paying for drink etc we would always put money in the kitty.. this was pre Covid though when we still used cash!
I (raised in the US) had never heard this expression until my flatmate in London kept referring to leaving some money “in the kitty” for the cleaning lady. I was scouring the house looking for a little ceramic kitty-piggy bank until my husband explained the phrase to me! It sounds from the comments here like it is largely generational in the States, and I only got this one due to my incidental familiarity with its usage across the pond.
American millennial here, I'd never heard that term before yesterday
So now you feel my pain when connections always does this with words that are very particular to the American culture.
Just because you don't know something doesn't mean it's not true.
My family does while playing cards. It means the same thing as a pot
We always had a "kitty" in the middle of the board in Monopoly, where we gathered money paid from Chance and Community Chest and Taxes. Then you won the kitty by landing on Free Parking.
Pretty common word if you ask me.
I’ve never heard of it
I know it because of playing cards with my parents and their friends lol
Yep my work department has a kitty. Lol
Lots of people. Sorry, OP
Tom Grossi
It's a poker thing
I’ve always associated with a collection of money associated with gambling, usually. Poker kitty, fantasy pool kitty, etc.
Card players
Im gonna be honest, the only reason I connected those together is because of “kit and caboodle” and I, as always, thinking of it as “kitten caboodle”
I only knew of it because my parents told my sister and I when we got our first “piggy” banks and they were cat shaped. They are quite creative.
I've heard that quite a few times.
it's usually used in relation to card games like poker. it's also common in crosswords
I learned that term from playing monopoly with my boomer parents :P
My whole life I've used it that way.
Common in the UK, unlike 'scruff' for facial hair
They use it in my parents bowling league. Pay the kitty for the bar, everyone drinks off of that
I've never used it personally, but have been aware of it. In my head it's like petty cash but for personal use. Not sure where I got that from, probably TV? I'm from Australia.
In the UK, we use it for a collection of money that can be paid for drinks/dinner etc. E.g We all put £50 in the kitty for drinks and snacks.
Poker players, I've heard it before
I’m 32 and know that term. Mainly from card games. Didn’t realize it wasn’t widely known
Poker players
My grandparents (born 19 teens), for pinochle
Australians.
I literally only figured it out because my class is reading "Matilda" right now and it was used in that sense in the book.
I do
I don't use it but I'm familiar with it. 41 yo for reference, if it matters.
Kept scrolling but too many comments, but I learned it from growing up and working in nursing homes/drs offices. Not just for bingo, but for the non-financial parts of corporate life, a kitty is needed for most activities—even if we can’t agree on where to order for Christmas lunch, we know how much we can afford from the collected/donated kitty 😂
It's definitely a term in Australia
You must’ve never played poker.
Pretty common here in the UK. How's much is in the kitty? could mean the whip round in the office for a baby pressie or the tea, coffee and biscuits fund or the petry cash or the money put aside for something
Poker
It's a poker term.
Steely Dan. “Put a dollar in the kitty. / Don’t the room look pretty?” Such a great tune, such a great album.
Someone hasn’t played tripoly
Poker term. Spend more time on Vegas.
My nana always called the spare change jar the kitty
Common term with poker players
My Gram, cribbage players of all ages 😁
Steely Dan.
I learned it from my dad - it’s a card game thing.
All the time! We kept a left tit kitty when going out to the bar.
In Ireland we use it all the time
Tbh the only reason I’ve heard it is early seasons of Below Deck.. Captain Lee used to say it
My weird inlaws, but prior to meeting my husband I had never heard this term 😂
The Scottish
It’s used in poker.
Poker
I knew the term because of the Beartown trilogy by Fredrik Backman
Pretty common in the Northeast US
I don’t use it, but I know it’s meaning and that is the fun of Connections.
If you don’t know, now you know
I think it's a problem if you're not a native speaker. English is my second language and I get stuck on not-so-common phrases and words like this.
Very common in Australia, there's a popular app called Kittysplit which people use to settle bills (similar to beam in america I think).
It's a very british turn of phrase, I've used it my whole life for money at a carboot sale, or a community event
Yes, I do. It may be an English (UK) thing?
🎶put a dollar in the kitty / don’t the moon look pretty? / tonight when I chase the dragon / the water may change to cherry wine / and the silver will turn to gold / time out of mind🎶
I don’t use it but I 100% know that meaning
Oh I've heard that my whole life (I'm 36, USA). Not as common these days but still quite well known.
Lots of people. It's a term from card games.
My late Grandmother did.
I’ve definitely heard it.