The origin of “the whole shebang,” meaning “the whole thing,” is somewhat mysterious. It may derive from an Irish word, shabeen, which meant “a disreputable drinking establishment,” then expanded to denote other kinds of structures, including “an encampment.” The phrase “the whole shebang” was popularized during the U.S. Civil War. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “The Whole Shebang”
Hello, you have A Way with Words.
Hello.
Hello.
Hi.
Hi, this is Mary Lou.
Hi, Mary Lou.
Where are you calling from?
From Petoskey, Michigan.
Petoskey, Michigan.
I don’t think we’ve ever had a Petoskey, Michigan call.
We have not.
You’re the first.
Welcome to the show.
Northwest Lower Peninsula.
Got it.
Okay.
What can we do for you?
I have a question about the origin of the phrase, the whole shebang.
I was raised on a farm that was homesteaded in 1835, and one of the phrases my grandmother, who we lived with, she lived with us, she used a lot was the whole shebang.
And that’s when she wanted to say everything included the whole shebang, and it was used in a lot of different contexts.
And it just happened that I had a great, great uncle who served in the Civil War and was imprisoned in Andersonville.
And when my husband and I had an opportunity to visit Andersonville, we did find his name and the roster of people that were there.
And we also were taken on a tour of the grounds at the Andersonville Center there.
And we noticed that there were little tents where the prisoners were kept, and they were called shebangs.
So I wondered if, in fact, is this the origin of the term, and how did it come to mean everything or the whole thing?
Yeah, that’s pretty much it.
In the early days in the 1860s, actually about the time of the Civil War, we’d see the first printed uses of shebang.
And it usually means one’s quarters, a small enclosure, a hut.
It’s never used for something like a mansion or a fine building or anything like that.
In a couple places, it’s used just for the place to sleep behind bushes.
So it’s your shebang.
And eventually, it started to be used to refer to you and all your belongings, everything that you own.
That’s all your shebang.
And so then you’ll start to see later when people talk about, like, I’m selling the whole shebang, meaning I’m selling the household with the furniture in it and everything in the drawers, that sort of thing.
And then it kind of just generalized later to mean any all-inclusive set of anything.
Anything. Any use.
Yes, I see.
And there’s a theory, and not a strong one, but there’s a fairly decent theory that it comes from an Irish word, shabin, meaning a drinking house of ill repute, kind of a place where you’d go to get rot gut.
And given the Irish influence on American English and the Scots-Irish influence, I wouldn’t be surprised if that were truly the origin of it.
Yeah, I could see having a really humble little shebang there and referring to a place like that.
-huh.
Well, that’s very interesting.
I’m glad to hear all the background of the term.
Oh, Mary Lou, I’m really glad to hear all the background of your family.
That must have been quite an experience to go there and see.
Yes, it was.
It was.
It was a kind of a spine-chilling experience to see the name listed there.
Fortunately, he was one of the, not very many, I think, released early from Andersonville to another nearby town.
So he survived the whole experience.
Well, he did.
Very good.
Wow.
Yeah, we love these kinds of family connections.
Thanks for sharing yours.
Take care.
Shirley.
Thank you.
Bye.
All right.
Bye-bye.
Tell us your family stories about language, just like Mary Lou did.
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