a meeting of party leaders to select candidates, elect convention delegates, etc.
a meeting of party members within a legislative body to select leaders and determine strategy.
(often initial capital letter)a faction within a legislative body that pursues its interests through the legislative process: the Women's Caucus; the Black Caucus.
any group or meeting organized to further a special interest or cause.
verb (used without object)
to hold or meet in a caucus.
verb (used with object)
to bring up or hold for discussion in a caucus: The subject was caucused. The group caucused the meeting.
Origin of caucus
1755–65,Americanism; apparently first used in the name of the Caucus Club of colonial Boston; perhaps < Medieval Latincaucus drinking vessel, Late Latincaucum < Greekkaûkos; alleged Virginia Algonquian orig. less probable
"private meeting of party leaders," 1763, American English (New England), perhaps from an Algonquian word caucauasu "counselor, elder, adviser" in the dialect of Virginia, or from the Caucus Club of Boston, a 1760s social & political club whose name possibly derived from Modern Greek kaukos "drinking cup." Another old guess is caulker's (meeting) [Pickering, 1816], but OED finds this dismissable.
caucus: "This noun is used throughout the United States, as a cant term for those meetings, which are held by the different political parties, for the purpose of agreeing upon candidates for office, or concerting any measure, which they intend to carry at the subsequent public, or town meetings." [John Pickering, "A Vocabulary, or Collection of Words and Phrases Which Have Been Supposed to be Peculiar to the United States of America," Boston, 1816]
The word caucus, and its derivative caucusing, are often used in Boston. The last answers much to what we stile parliamenteering or electioneering. All my repeated applications to different gentlemen have not furnished me with a satisfactory account of the origin of caucus. It seems to mean, a number of persons, whether more or less, met together to consult upon adopting and prosecuting some scheme of policy, for carrying a favorite point. [William Gordon, "History, Rise, Progress, and Establishment of the Independence of the United States of America," London, 1788]
v.
1850, from caucus (n.), but caucusing is attested from 1788.
A meeting of members of a political party to nominate candidates, choose convention delegates, plan campaign tactics, determine party policy, or select leaders for a legislature.
