Etymology Dictionary

BAMBOOZLE,  to trick, cajole.  (A cant word).   The quotations point to the original sense as being to cajole by confusing the senses, to confuse, to obfuscate.  It occurs in Swift, Hist. of John Bull, and in Arbuthnot, who talks of 'a set of fellows called banterers and bamboozlers, who play such tricks.'   In the Tatler, no 31, is the remark:  'But, sir, I perceive this is to you all bamboozling,' i.e. unintelligible trickery.   The word to bam, i.e. to cheat, is, apparently, a contraction of it, and not the original; but this is uncertain.   It is obviously a cant word, and originated in thieves' slang.   Webster and the Slang Dictionary assign it to the Gipsies.   ¶ In Awdelay's Fraternity of Vagabonds, ed. Furnivall, the phrase 'bene bouse' means 'good drink,' bene being a common slang word for good, and bouse the same for drink.   At p. 86 of that work is the saying that 'bene bouse makes nase nabes,' i.e. that a good drink makes a drunken head.   Could bamboozle have meant, 'to treat to a good drink?'   Of course, this is but a guess.