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Used in the Canadian military - at least it was 30 years ago. Various uses. Kit bag for your duffel bag with all your stuff. Mess kit to describe the box containing your kitchen utinsils you carried into the field. Or in general to describe all of this stuff as in go get your kit and load it into that truck.
Like so much of history Steve, it seems unclear. Your source interests me?
I'd though it was "two countries separated by a common language". Having checked it as far as i allowed time i settled on Famous Quotes by Author - The Quotations Page
The only direct military reference i can think of off the top of my head is the first world war song that goes something like "Pack up you troubles in your old kit bag and smile smile smile". The inference being to place all you worries together in your issue bag with the rest of your "****" for later action and putting a brave face on for the short term. Perhaps Steve has heard it?
This and many such moral rousing verses were wheeled back out for WWii. During which time, ofcourse, our American Allies joined the fight and may well have heard it thus picking up on the venacular. Perhaps from here it has it's military origin in the USA. In Blighty it's a term for personal gear in and out of the forces. Just as you've said.
"Rig" is less personal and more technically orientated. E.G. drilling rig, articulated rig, lifting rig. Totally accurate for a diving or scuba rig.
Hope this helped.
Regards
Dan
The words kit and caboodle have rather similar meanings.
A kit - is set of objects, as in a toolkit, or what a soldier would put in his kit-bag.
A caboodle (or boodle) - is an archaic term meaning group or collection, usually of people.
There are several phrases similar to the whole kit and caboodle, which is first recorded in that form in 1884. Most of them are of US origin and all the early citations are American. Caboodle was never in common use outside the USA and now has died out everywhere, apart from its use in this phrase.
Ya' know, it's just flat *AMAZIN'* what ya' can find on the internet:
From the OED:
Main Entry: ca.boo.dle
Pronunciation: k&-’bü-d[^&]l
Function: noun
Etymology: probably from ca- (intensive prefix) + boodle
Date: circa 1848
: COLLECTION, LOT
Then, boodle:
Main Entry: boo.dle
Pronunciation: ‘bü-d[^&]l
Function: noun
Etymology: Dutch boedel estate, lot, from Middle Dutch; akin to Old Norse buth booth
Date: 1833
1 : a collection or lot of persons : CABOODLE
2 a : bribe money b : a large amount especially of money
For a longer and more detailed history check out:
Interestingly... looking at "kit"... the orgin seems to lie not as a direct reference to the collection of items but rather to a container for holding things:
Kit \Kit\, m. [Cf. D. kit a large bottle, OD. kitte beaker, decanter.]
1. A large bottle.
2. A wooden tub or pail, smaller at the top than at the bottom; as, a kit of butter, or of mackerel. --Wright.
3. straw or rush basket for fish; also, any kind of basket. [Prov. Eng.]
--Halliwell.
4. A box for working implements; hence, a working outfit, as of a workman, a soldier, and the like.
5. A group of separate parts, things, or individuals; -- used with whole, and generally contemptuously; as, the whole kit of them.
No one has mentioned "rig" in this conversation. A word I often use when discussing my scuba gear setup. While the word has many and varied definitions, in this instance, it is likely a carry over from a skydiving term meaning, a parachute system.
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