482: filibuster Apr 3, 2016

Nowadays, 'filibuster' carries the connotation to politics and legal assemblies, but it did not start out that way. It comes from the 18th century French word, 'flibustier', which first applied to pirates pillaging the Spanish colonies in the West Indies, ultimately from the Dutch, 'vrijbuiter'. In the mid 19th century (the term was used to denote Americans who incited revolution in several Latin American states. Soon after the verb was used to describe tactics employed to sabotage congressional proceedings.