It's much in the news these days, what with the desire to reform it and all. A filibuster, for those who may not know the term, is a delaying tactic, usually thought of as being in the form of an extremely long speech ala Jimmy Stewart, but in fact not usually taking that form these days at all. The tactics are not new, as they used some of the same devices in the Roman Senate way back when, but 'filibuster' is an American coinage. I thought it was probably based on some Latin legal term, in fact, but no, it's not, and if you don't know its origin, it's pretty fun.
Filibuster apparently goes back to the Dutch vrijbuiter, which meant robber, or plunderer. Freebooter is a loan word derived from this and is related to 'booty' here as well. If all this smacks of piracy, well, that's because vrijbuiter becomes both the Spanish filibustero and the French flibustier, both terms for the pirates of the West Indies and giving us the English word 'flibutor' as well. To me, 'flibutor' just doesn't have the same ring as 'pirate', which is probably why it didn't catch on...
The Spanish term is the one that caught on in Texas, where filibusteros incited insurrection against Spain in Latin America, under the banners of Narcisso Lopez in Cuba and William Walker in Mexico and Nicaragua. I think this sense of insurrection and rebellion is more what carried over to the stalling tactics in the Senate than actual piracy. Although when I think of the money moving through Washington DC, I realize I could very well be wrong.
Sorry, no pictures--my picture file is acting wonky, so you will just have to imagine these bold brigands for yourselves...
Filibuster apparently goes back to the Dutch vrijbuiter, which meant robber, or plunderer. Freebooter is a loan word derived from this and is related to 'booty' here as well. If all this smacks of piracy, well, that's because vrijbuiter becomes both the Spanish filibustero and the French flibustier, both terms for the pirates of the West Indies and giving us the English word 'flibutor' as well. To me, 'flibutor' just doesn't have the same ring as 'pirate', which is probably why it didn't catch on...
The Spanish term is the one that caught on in Texas, where filibusteros incited insurrection against Spain in Latin America, under the banners of Narcisso Lopez in Cuba and William Walker in Mexico and Nicaragua. I think this sense of insurrection and rebellion is more what carried over to the stalling tactics in the Senate than actual piracy. Although when I think of the money moving through Washington DC, I realize I could very well be wrong.
Sorry, no pictures--my picture file is acting wonky, so you will just have to imagine these bold brigands for yourselves...
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Oh, now I am thinking of a band name: Filibusteros. Or a midlife crisis female band: Filibustiers!!
ReplyDeleteIf you put that band together, I promise to buy the music!
ReplyDeleteHmm, buiten in Dutch means "out" or "foreign." So newspapers' foreign-news sections will be labelled buitenland and their domestic sections binnenland. Does the "buit" in "vrijbuiter" have any connection to those meanings?
ReplyDeleteA filibustier sounds to me like something Madonna would wear. The Filibusteros would probably play music I'd like to hear, though their sets might go on until after I'd want to be home in bed.
Well, I'm not sure. The 'buit' according to the Online Etymological dictionary equals 'booty' and goes back to 'buiten'--to exchange or plunder. Admittedly exchange and plunder don't sound like exactly the same activity.
ReplyDeleteMy Dutch dictionary unfortunately does not give etymologies. But its entry for buit is separate from its extensive entry for buiten, which includes many compound words of which buiten is a part. So yes, the words may be unrelated.
ReplyDeleteI don't know, and I think I would probably have to be able to read Dutch to figure it out.
ReplyDeleteThis link might help. It’s in Dutch, but the graphic language is the same as it is on Web sites in other languages. Type the word in the box at the top, then click “zoek,” which means “search.” NL-NL means “nederlands-nederlands,” or “Dutch to Dutch.” Pull down the menu, and you can translate between Dutch and other languages. No etymology there, either, but also nothing to indicate that “buit” and “buiten” are related. I knew I should have bought the big etymological dictionary of Dutch when I had the chance.
ReplyDelete