“Gerrymandering” is a political scheme (in the US) so named because of a person: Gerry Mander. Another US political scheme is the “filibuster.” It, too, sounds like it might be named after a person like “Governor Filibuster of Maryland” — but it’s not!
“Filibustering” is a peculiar tactic used in the US Senate to delay action on something, such as a vote. One person can get “the floor” (which is permission to be the only person allowed to speak) and keeps talking as long as physically possible. Some filibusters last for 24 hours or more, and for some reason this actually works to stop some other action, such as a vote. It’s an odd practice that allows a single person to effectively overrule a majority.
The US House of Representatives used to have rules permitting filibusters too, but they changed that rule back in 1842. The practice didn’t originate with US politics; it actually goes back to the Roman Senate. But calling it a “filibuster” only goes back to the mid-1800s. The word itself has a slightly weird history.
In the 1500s English borrowed the Dutch word “vrijbuiter,” which was a compound made up of “vrij” (free) and “buiter” (plunder). When it entered English it became “freebooter,” which meant a pirate. “Buiter” was also borrowed independently, becoming “booty,” or the treasure gathered by pirates. So how did we get from pirates to senators? In spite of the obvious jokes, it turns out that English borrowed “vrijbuiter” twice. The second time it came in by way of Spanish, where it had morphed into “filibustero.” The second borrowing occurred around the beginning of the 1800s.
When it originally entered English, “filibuster” referred to mercenaries who infiltrated European colonies in Central and South America. Their approach was to try to promote revolutions (or at least political disruption) and use the chaos to seize power and wealth (mostly wealth). One example is William Walker, apparently a real prince of a guy who came from Tennessee to try to grab steal of Mexico, then tried to invade Nicaragua. Twice.
The filibusters were the terrorists of the day, and by the 1850s a heated debate in Congress typically featured at least one representative claiming the other party was “filibustering” by trying to “seize Congress” using delaying tactics. The term had a real ring to it, apparently, because by 1853 it had caught on. Its new meaning was becoming well-known enough to completely eclipse its original meaning. Even though the there are still guys from the US who try to overthrow governments in Central and South America (nowadays they usually work for the US government, which later tries to claim they don’t), we no longer have just one specific word for them. Hmmm, I wonder to what extent that’s intentional?
