@wesdym
I think my favorite loan word is "caucus". It sounds so Latin! And it's about politics, and one's mind goes to caucusing in the Roman Senate.

But, no -- it has a much more interesting heritage: it comes from the Algonquin family of languages, along with, it turns out, a lot of other ideas about freedom, politics, and economy as the monarchical Europeans encountered the societies of the Americas and had their eyes opened to many novel ways of organizing societies.

@lain_7 @wesdym

Doesn't "caucus" mean "drinking vessel" in Latin?

It seems far more likely that the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_Caucus that met in a tavern to enjoy drinks like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flip_(cocktail), was named after a Latin word for a drinking vessel. And this group influenced American political jargon with members like Samual Adams and John Adams.

@castedo @wesdym

You could be right. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caucus gives several possible etymologies -- both the Algonquian and the drinking-vessel among them.

Native American politics was well known at the time (Franklin held them up as an example the colonies could learn from, and I think Jefferson discussed them as well).