Why do we "cast" a ballot?
"Ballot" and "bullet" are both derived from a Germanic word signifying "ball." This is easy to understand as far as "bullet" goes, because the first bullets were indeed little balls. But why "ballot"?
"Ballot" goes back to the ancient Greek practice of voting by dropping a white or black ball into a container--white if you liked the candidate, black if you didn't. (This is the origin of the term "to blackball" or "unanimously reject," by the way.)
Now, of course, a ballot may be a piece of paper or a digital signal, depending on how our voting systems are set up.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
Test
Blackball means veto not unanimously reject -- one black ball cast against a prospective member of a fraternity or sorority means the supplicant must be rejected.
Post a Comment