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statesman. As The Merriam-Webster account relates, “Doubtless
the writers have mistakenly assumed that éminence grise derived
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haired.” For this reason, today, the term has two contradictory
meanings today.Mugwump (noun)- A person, especially a politician, who is unable to make up his or her
mind on an issue. - A person who remains neutral or independent on a controversial issue.
z Mugwump originally comes from a word in a Native American
Algonquian dialect that meant “important person.” By the 1830s,
English speakers were using mugwump to mean “great man, boss,
important person” in a jesting, chiding sense to poke fun at people
who thought particularly highly of themselves.z Then, during the presidential election of 1884, the meaning of
mugwump shifted.
ż James G. Blaine, the Republican candidate, was running
against Grover Cleveland, the Democratic candidate. A faction
of Republican political activists who were highly critical of the
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Party to support the Democratic candidate, Cleveland.ż The Republicans who remained loyal to Blaine weren’t happy
and dubbed the Republican turncoats mugwumps, deriding
their holier-than-thou, pompous attitudes and the supercilious
way in which they tried to hold themselves above party politics.ż )URP WKLV ZH JHW RXU FXUUHQW GH¿QLWLRQ RI mugwump as a
person who is unable to make up his or her mind about an issue
or someone who remains neutral over a controversial issue.
Consider for example, this context sentence: “The senator