For many years the word was thought to be of Algonquian origin, derived from the word caucauasu meaning "elder or counselor." Captain John Smith recorded the word as Caw-cawaassough in his journal. Unfortunately, the coincidence of time and place without a direct link amounts to circumstantial evidence in the field of etymology. Resemblance and geographical proximity just aren't enough by themselves to establish a true word history, and recently revised Merriam-Webster dictionaries now list the word as origin unknown pending further discoveries.

Webster's definition of caucus in 1806 read as follows: "a cant name of secret meetings for electioneering purposes." Webster's use of the word cant, meaning "corrupt or whining talk," is unusual in that his first dictionary provided very little usage information. This gives us some perspective regarding his sense of the word's dubious respectability in the early 19th century.

The word did take hold in Britain during the 1800s, and Lewis Carroll used it to lampoon the dubious respectability of the political process in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. The "caucus-race," as he presented it, involved no official rules but required all participants to run in circles until an arbitrary end was called, and prizes allotted to all. Sound familiar?