The Etymology of Caucus

[Joel S. Berson]

At 10/29/2007 07:40 AM, Stephen Goranson wrote:
>Frederick William Dallinger, Nominations for Elective Office in the United
>States (Harvard Historical Studies IV, 1897) p. 10 [Google Book full view],
>which mentions the Caucus Club and the North End Caucus, presents part of a
>Boston newspaper appeal, but made two errors. He misdated it as May 4, 1764
>when it was May 14, and he said it was signed "The Caucus" when it was signed
>"The _CAUCAS_." (Also note the plural: "Your humble Servants, The _CAUCAS_")

The possible plural is intriguing, along with the "as".  But might it
not be a collective noun, as in "the committee"?

And one year earlier John Adams had spelt it "caucus".  Are the
newspaper "caucas"s (and the others you found) just a not-unusual
18th c. variable spelling?  Or have the editors of the Adams _Diary_
normalized *his* spelling of one year earlier?

>And he omitted the N.B. section following the signature. Apparently
>we now have the spellings Caucus, Caucuss (1776 mentioned
>yesterday), and Caucas (this is not the only appearance of the latter).

Do some of the other "caucas"s also suggest a plural?

>The appeal is in the Boston Evening
>Post and is available in America's Historical Newspapers.
>
>My previous message made no mention of, and no claim about,  Elisha Cooke Jr.

True; I mentioned Cooke because his 1720's party is referred to as a
"caucus" also.  But my question was really whether "north end"
suggests anything about the etymology.

>The slight misdating in the OED Caucus etymology perhaps followed the similar
>mistake in An American Glossary By Richard Hopwood Thornton page 154.

Do you mean the 1788 misdating of Gordon as 1774?  Since the
quotations include Gordon and date it 1788, I wonder whether the
reference in the etymology means rather that Gordon said (in 1788)
that he couldn't obtain a satisfactory explanation of the name in
1774.  (Did he ask Adams??)

>More of the biography of Joseph Warren in John Eliot, 1809, I suggest, ma be,
>for those interested in this word, worth reading.

Thanks.  I have an interest in the Boston Caucus -- meaning the 1720s
group -- and will look there.

Joel

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