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A caucus is a meeting of supporters or members of a specific political party or movement. The term originated in the United States, but has spread to Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, Brazil and Nepal. As the use of the term has been expanded, the exact definition has come to vary among political cultures. ==Origin of the term== The origin of the word ''caucus'' is debated, but it is generally agreed that it first came into use in the English colonies of North America. A February 1763 entry in the diary of John Adams of Braintree, Massachusetts, is one of the earliest appearances of ''Caucas'', already with its modern connotations of a "smoke-filled room" where candidates for public election are pre-selected in private: ''This day learned that the Caucas Clubb meets at certain Times in the Garret of Tom Daws, the Adjutant of the Boston Regiment. He has a large House, and he has a moveable Partition in his Garrett, which he takes down and the whole Clubb meets in one Room. An article in ''Great Leaders and National Issues of 1896'' surveying famous presidential campaigns of the past, begins with an unsourced popular etymology of the origin of the caucus:
No wholly satisfactory etymology has been documented.〔(J.L. Bell, ""Boston 1775: Colonial Boston Vocabulary: 'caucus,' part 2" )〕 James Hammond Trumbull suggested to the American Philological Association that it comes from an Algonquian word for "counsel", 'cau´-cau-as´u'. The word might also derive from the Algonquian ''cawaassough'', meaning an advisor, talker, or orator. This explanation was favoured by Charles Dudley Warner.〔(''The Story of Pocahontas" ), Project Gutenberg〕 The ''American Heritage Dictionary'' suggests that it possibly derived from medieval Latin ''caucus'', meaning "drinking vessel", such as might have been used for the flip drunk at Caucus Club of colonial Boston. An analogical Latin-type plural "cauci" is occasionally used. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「caucus」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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