caucus
pronunciation
How to pronounce caucus in British English:
UK [ˈkɔ:kəs]
How to pronounce caucus in American English:
US [ˈkɔkəs]
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- Noun:
- a closed political meeting
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- Verb:
- meet to select a candidate or promote a policy
Word Origin
- caucus
- caucus: [18] Caucus ‘closed party meeting’ is believed to be of native American origin. Certainly its early usage was restricted to the USA (it did not reach British English until the 1870s, when it became something of a political buzzword for a time). In form and meaning it strongly resembles caucauasu, a word meaning ‘counsellor’ in the Algonquian languages of eastern Canada and the USA which was recorded in print by Captain John Smith (1580– 1631), an early English colonist in America.
- caucus (v.)
- 1850, from caucus (n.), but caucusing is attested from 1788.
- caucus (n.)
- "private meeting of party leaders," 1763, American English (New England), perhaps from an Algonquian word caucauasu "counselor, elder, adviser" in the dialect of Virginia, or from the Caucus Club of Boston, a 1760s social & political club whose name possibly derived from Modern Greek kaukos "drinking cup." Another old guess is caulker's (meeting) [Pickering, 1816], but OED finds this dismissable. caucus: "This noun is used throughout the United States, as a cant term for those meetings, which are held by the different political parties, for the purpose of agreeing upon candidates for office, or concerting any measure, which they intend to carry at the subsequent public, or town meetings." [John Pickering, "A Vocabulary, or Collection of Words and Phrases Which Have Been Supposed to be Peculiar to the United States of America," Boston, 1816] The word caucus, and its derivative caucusing, are often used in Boston. The last answers much to what we stile parliamenteering or electioneering. All my repeated applications to different gentlemen have not furnished me with a satisfactory account of the origin of caucus. It seems to mean, a number of persons, whether more or less, met together to consult upon adopting and prosecuting some scheme of policy, for carrying a favorite point. [William Gordon, "History, Rise, Progress, and Establishment of the Independence of the United States of America," London, 1788]
Example
- 1. It kept the democratic caucus from fragmenting .
- 2. Dan patrick , a senator from houston , announced that he was starting a tea party caucus .
- 3. As a founding member of the congressional black caucus , mr rangel still has considerable power on capitol hill , his censure notwithstanding .
- 4. Younger parliamentarians have become so dissatisfied with mr ozawa that yukio hatoyama , the dpj 's secretary-general , now says that he , and not mr ozawa , is answerable to the party caucus .