Talk:Caucus

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This page has been cited as a source by a media organization. See the 2004 press source article for details. The citation is in: "Could Kerry win Eagle County?", The Vail Trail, April 8, 2004.

Bartleby's gives a very different etmology: "ETYMOLOGY: After the Caucus Club of Boston (in the 1760s), possibly from Medieval Latin caucus, drinking vessel." [1] Samw 22:06, 18 Aug 2003 (UTC)

[edit] international use of caucuses

- suggest including use of 'caucus' terminology at UN summits, e.g. World Summit on Information Society civil society caucuses and working groups

---

I would love to see a reference to the use of the phrase "caucus race" in Alice in Wonderland. It stuck in my head from childhood, and considering the state of the caucus in North Carolina that prevented the Democratic primary, it seemed quite appropriate. -- Dave in NC

http://rackham.artpassions.net/alice3.html

"What I was going to say, said the Dodo in an offended tone, was, that the best thing to get us dry would be a Caucus-race.

What IS a Caucus-race? said Alice; not that she wanted much to know, but the Dodo had paused as if it thought that SOMEBODY ought to speak, and no one else seemed inclined to say anything.

Why, said the Dodo, the best way to explain it is to do it. (And, as you might like to try the thing yourself, some winter day, I will tell you how the Dodo managed it.)

First it marked out a race-course, in a sort of circle, (the exact shape doesn't matter, it said,) and then all the party were placed along the course, here and there. There was no One, two, three, and away, but they began running when they liked, and left off when they liked, so that it was not easy to know when the race was over. However, when they had been running half an hour or so, and were quite dry again, the Dodo suddenly called out The race is over! and they all crowded round it, panting, and asking, But who has won?"

[edit] native american origins source

- suggest checking this source for support of algonquin origin> From http://www.ratical.com/many_worlds/6Nations/EoL/index.html#ToC

[edit] Possible Finnish origin of the term

This seems very unlikely to me. And it merits no mention in the Oxford English Dictionary. Furthermore, the statement that there were "many" Finnish immigrants in the Great Lakes reason is, I think, contrary to historical evidence for the period. The OED gives the first attestation in writing as 1763, and I think there was only neglibile Finnish immigration by that time. It was made by a user from the IP address 62.237.62.1. Given that the information is uncited and contradicts that of reliable sources, I propse that this be removed unless someone can provide independent citations for it. Interlingua ^{talk email} 02:10, 12 January 2007 (UTC)

It's been over a week and no one has responded to the above post. As there is no reliable source that I know of which supports the Finnish etymology, I've removed the following:

In the Finnish language, there is also a word, kokous, meaning an official meeting. The existence of this word in the Finnish language supports the theory that it has European origins. It is also known that many Finns moved to the United States, more specifically to the East Coast and the areas surrounding the Great Lakes. However, the Finnish language is not an Indo-European language, and belongs to a very different language family than most European languages so the possibility that the word is of a common European origin is highly unlikely.

Most likely, the word entered Finnish from some other language, perhaps English. Interlingua ^{talk email} 01:59, 21 January 2007 (UTC)

--Australian Usage-- I thought there should be some mention of the strong prohibition in the Australian Labor Party against voting against the decision of the caucus. This has been a significant point of solidarity within the ALP. --Peacenik 23:43, 11 March 2007 (UTC)