psephologist
noun

- a person who studies how people vote in elections

Oxford Learner’s Dictionary

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WORD ORIGIN

The word "psephologist" comes from the Greek roots psephos meaning "pebble" or "stone" (referring to the ancient Greek practice of voting by casting pebbles) and -logy meaning "the study of".

The term was coined in the 1950s by Sir David Butler, a former BBC election analyst who pioneered exit polls and the concept of vote swing.

Some comedians have suggested an alternative etymology for the word “politics”: derived from the Greek poly meaning “many” and “ticks” meaning "bloodsucking parasites".

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CLEVER GREEKS

The Greeks’ voting method called psephophoria is derived from the word psephos meaning pebble. Voters would receive two pebbles - one white and one black. To cast their vote, they would drop the pebble of their choice into an urn, typically using their thumb and first two fingers to conceal which color they were depositing.

This system had several advantages:

- Secrecy: By concealing the pebble in their hand, voters could cast their ballot without others knowing their choice.

- Simplicity: The method was easy to understand and implement, requiring no special equipment or literacy.

- Efficiency: Votes could be quickly counted by separating and tallying the white and black pebbles.

- Transparency: The physical nature of the pebbles made it difficult to tamper with votes unnoticed.

The use of pebbles for voting was so ingrained in Greek culture that the word "psephos" came to mean "vote" in general. This practice influenced modern political terminology, hence today’s OWAD "psephology”.

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SYNONYMS

- for politics and politicking:

a game of chess, a house of cards, a jungle, a rat race, a tightrope walk, art of the possible, backroom deals, climbing the greasy pole, corridors of power, dog-eat-dog world, horse trading, machinations, maneuvering, mud-slinging, old boys' club, playing the game, political football, power play, pulling strings, realpolitik, sausage-making, sea of sharks, smoke-filled rooms, wheeling and dealing

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SMUGGLE OWAD into a sentence, say something like:

“The news channel invited a PSEPHOLOGIST to explain the poll results.”

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