Etymology Uncertain. Originally attested as a criminal cant word for "burglar's tool-box" in 1881. In the 20th century a clutch of criminal slang meanings are mentioned, including "safe, strongbox". "Tripe and keister" had been the phrase for a conman's or a pitchman's display case on a tripod. A likely origin is the word Kiste, which means a box or case, in both German and Yiddish.
― " […] The four hundred's yours to take a keister for me. Any cash you find in the box is yours." ― "Four hundred, huh? Don't seem like much. Think there'd be anything in the keister?"1953, Richard S. Prather, Too many crooks, page 100:
Tripods, keister and loud talk don't make a pitchman any more than do fine feathers make fine birds.1942 August 29, Billboard, page 63:
Sometimes Mama was too busy to make the daily rounds of the draws and pockets, in which case she gave us the keister — an old leather satchel used, in its better days to carry the baby's "didies" in — and sent us to bring in the eggs.1963, Grace Snyder, Nellie Irene Snyder Yost, No Time on My Hands, page 37:
Etymology Uncertain. Originally attested as a criminal cant word for "burglar's tool-box" in 1881. In the 20th century a clutch of criminal slang meanings are mentioned, including "safe, strongbox". "Tripe and keister" had been the phrase for a conman's or a pitchman's display case on a tripod. A likely origin is the word Kiste, which means a box or case, in both German and Yiddish.