Taking first things first, I’ll start with the word primary, which descends from the Latin primus, “first.” Primary, as a shortening of “primary election, is first recorded in 1861. In an election we “pick out” a candidate whom we wish to vote for. In Latin e means “out” and lectus “pick or choose.”

Campaign is very much a fighting word. The Latin campus, “field,” is a clue that the first campaigns were conducted on battlefields. A military campaign is a series of operations mounted to achieve a particular wartime objective. A political campaign is an all-out effort to secure the election of a candidate to office.

When he went to the Forum in Roman times, a candidate for office wore a bleached white toga to symbolize his humility, purity of motive and candor. The original Latin root, candidatus, meant “one who wears white,” from the belief that white was the color of purity and probity. There was wishful thinking even in ancient Roman politics, even though a white-clad Roman candidatus was accompanied by sectatores, followers who helped him get votes by bargaining and bribery. The Latin parent verb candere, “to shine, to glow” can be recognized in the English words candid, candor, candle, chandelier, and incandescent.

We know that candidates are ambitious; it’s also worth knowing that ambition developed from the Latin ambitionem, “a going about,” from the going about of candidates for office in ancient Rome.

President descends from the Latin praesidio, “preside, sit in front of or protect.” Presidents sit in the seat of government. When we speak of “the ship of state,” we are being more accurate etymologically than we know. The Greek word kybernao meant “to direct a ship.” The Romans borrowed the word as guberno, and ultimately it crossed the English Channel as governor, originally a steersman. That’s why the noun is governor and the adjective is gubernatorial.

Filibuster is imported from the Dutch vrijbuiter, “freebooter,” which first meant “pirate, adventurer, one who plunders freely” in English. That sense is retained in the current denotation of filibuster: “holding a piece of legislation captive by making long and windy speeches.” One of the first known practitioners of the filibuster was the Roman senator Cato the Younger. In debates over legislation he especially opposed, Cato would often obstruct the measure by speaking continuously until nightfall.

The ancients used small balls or pebbles to vote, “casting” them into one box or another. Hence, the word ballot, “a small ball or pebble.” If a majority of black balls were placed in a ballot box, the candidate was blackballed, “excluded, ostracized.”

The original Greek meaning of the word idiot was not a matter of I.Q. Long before the psychologists got hold of the word, the Greeks used idiotes, from the root idios, “private,” as in idiom and idiosyncrasy, to designate those who did not hold public office. Because such people possessed no special status or skill, the word idiot gradually fell into disrepute.

The vote that responsible citizens cast is really a “vow” or “wish.” This is the precise meaning of the Latin votum. People in our society who fail to exercise their democratic privilege of voting on election day are sometimes called idiots.

The political expression “to throw one’s hat in the ring” probably derives from the custom of tossing one’s hat into the boxing ring to signal the acceptance of a pugilist’s challenge. Once the hat is thrown, the candidates start engaging in political infighting as they slug it out with their opponents.

During the 19 th century, a dedicated follower showed support for a political candidate by carrying a torch in an evening campaign parade. A fellow who “carried a torch” in such a rally didn’t care who knew that he was wholeheartedly behind his candidate. Later the term was applied to someone publicly (and obsessively) in love.

One more metaphor that was originally literal attaches to bandwagons, high wagons large enough to hold a band of musicians. Early bandwagons were horse-drawn through the streets in order to publicize an upcoming event. Political candidates would ride a bandwagon through a town, and those who wished to show their support would “hop [or climb] on the bandwagon” and ride with the candidate and his blaring band.