You’ll often see the word “caucus” in news stories that have to do with the US Congress — the “Republican caucus,” the “Democratic caucus” — and sometimes a senator or representative who’s independent will be described as “caucusing” with one party or the other.
The word is part of the trade jargon of US politics, and it has a very specific meaning: “a private meeting of the leaders or representatives of a political party, previous to an election or to a general meeting of the party, to select candidates for office, or to concert other measures for the furthering of party interests.”
It first appeared in the Boston Gazette in 1760, although with a different spelling: “The new and grand Corcas… The old and true Corcas.” A couple of years later John Adams used a spelling closer to the modern one in a diary entry: “This day learned that the Caucas Clubb meets at certain Times in the Garret of Tom Daws.”
Even at the time nobody was quite sure where the word came from. There were stories, even then, that the word had been in use since the early 1700s, but nobody has ever found it in print before 1760. There’s been speculation about its origin ever since. An 1896 article suggested that it came from “caulkers” — the people who use tar or pitch to fix leaks in ships. (That was an actual profession in those days.) The article appeared in Great Leaders and National Issues, and theorized: “In the early part of the eighteenth century a number of caulkers connected with the shipping business in the North End of Boston held a meeting for consultation. That meeting was the germ of the political caucuses which have formed so prominent a feature of our government ever since its organization.”
Another theory is that “caucus” comes from a Latin word for the north wind. This idea is based (kind of weakly) on this account from 1788: “More than fifty years ago [that is, in the 1730s], Mr. Samuel Adams’s father, and twenty others, one or two from the north end of town, where all the ship business is carried on, used to meet, make a caucus, and lay their plan for introducing certain persons into places of trust and power.”
They met in the north part of town, you see. Yeah, I know, it doesn’t make a lot of sense. But neither do the theories that suggest it’s derived from “Cooke’s house” (some political meetings were held in Elisha Cooke’s home), or from a Greek word for a cup (kaukos), on the basis that the meetings were political but also social, so they probably served drinks? We guess?
Those theories are not very convincing. Another notion is that “caucus”, which as far as we know originated in New England, is based on the Algonquin word cau’-cau-as’u, which meant an advisor. That word was first mentioned in print in The Generall Historie of Virginia, New-England, and the Summer Isles in 1624: “In all these places is a severall commander, which they call Werowance, except the Chickahamanians, who are governed by the Priests and their Assistants, or their Elders called Caw-cawwassoughes.”
It’s also been mentioned that “caucus” might be related to “Caucasus” (a mountain range between Europe and Asia), or “Caucasians” (people from that area). Those are the only English words that look anything like “caucus,” but even the folks who dreamed up those ideas were never able to think of any actual link to “caucus.”
So we’re left with a number of relatively unconvincing theories and not much else. Maybe the way to decide on the origin story for “caucus” is to hold a meeting in a back room somewhere and argue about it for hours.
