Shebang

[sluggo]

Shebang (shi-ˈbaŋ)
Function: noun
Etymology: origin unknown
Date: 1860s
(This would place this in the same etymological fertile timefield as its far more famous contemporary comrade OK)

Def: everything involved in what is under consideration —usually used in the phrase the whole shebang (-M-W)

Syn: 'the whole ball of wax', 'the whole nine yards', 'the whole box of dice', 'the whole shootin' match', 'the whole enchilada', 'the whole kit and caboodle' etc.
(NB the source, listed below, gave #4 as 'the whole shooting match' but I've never ever heard the G pronounced in this form, have you?)

This site gives interesting chase, citing early usages by Walt Whitman and Mark Twain, though both of those certainly predate the origin they give as 1920. Plausible dueling derivations: Irish Gaelic shebeen (sibin), 'an unlicenced pub' and French charabanc (char à bancs), 'carriage with benches'

[Perry]

Everytime we think that we have the whole shebang, something else gets bunged in there.

[melissa]

Gaelic shebeen (sibin), 'an unlicenced pub

well if there's a Gaelic word for an unlicenced pub, I will work it into my next conversation for sure.