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| Next year maybe LeBron can guard this maverick... |
I can't say that I share DR's enthusiasm for pro basketball. It does, however, fit into my annual schedule of spectator sports, as the play-offs fill the lull after March Madness and before summer baseball. And so, after watching a tremendous championship series, I was left wondering: what exactly is a “maverick.”
It turns out that I should have been asking who was a “maverick,” as this word, like “boycott,” “sandwich” and “lynch,” has its origin in a proper name: Samuel Maverick, a Texas revolutionary and apathetic cattle rancher.
Samuel Maverick was born in Charleston, South Carolina in 1803, the progeny of an English family present in the New World since before the American Revolution. As a young man, he traveled through the Mexican territory of Texas, buying as much land as he could along the way. When the Texas Revolution broke out, Maverick guided the Texan rebels during their successful attack on San Antonio, and signed the Texas Declaration of Independence. He would spend six and a half months in a Mexican prison, which makes Midnight Express look like Spring Break in Cancun.
After Texas became part of the United States, Samuel Maverick settled into the life of a land baron and politician. According to the memoirs of his wife and son, in 1845 he became the owner of 400 head of cattle as payment for a debt. Which, to Samuel, was kind of like having a roommate paying his half of the rent by giving you his crappy car.
Apparently not giving a rat's behind about the cattle business, Maverick left the herd wander around where ever, and never got around to marking most of them as his property. These unbranded animals became so numerous that other ranchers began calling all unclaimed cattle “mavericks.” And the name stuck.
In the linguistically exuberant Wild West, it was not long before the term “maverick” was first used to describe someone who either had no master (in a good way) or strayed too far from the herd (in a bad way). Politically, it has been used to both praise and deride the independence of politicians who fail to vote with their parties since the 1860s.
Given the frequency of the term in the 2008 US Presidential election, it may surprise no one that Mavericks have long been involved in politics. Samuel Maverick was certainly politically minded, even after participating in the Texas Revolution. He was elected to the Texas Congress (when it was a Republic) and the Texas Legislature (when it was a State).
Samuel's grandson Maury Maverick lived up to his namesake. Democratic member of the House of Representatives from Texas, he was known for his independence from the party line. He served in FDR's administration during World War II. Like his grandfather, Maury Maverick also contributed a word to English, being the first person to use “gobbledygook” in print. Despite the appropriation of the name by more conservative politicians, John Schwartz, writing for the New York Times, notes that the capital-M Mavericks were noted for their progressive politics.
Of course, politicians aren't the only people who can get all “maverick-y.” There are maverick musicians and maverick businessman and maverick owners, which, in Mark Cuban's case, is true no matter how you capitalize it.
This has been another Word of the Moment by Schendo, maverick linguist and sometime armchair point guard. Photograph is from anemoneprojectors, and is used under a creative commons share alike license.
This has been another Word of the Moment by Schendo, maverick linguist and sometime armchair point guard. Photograph is from anemoneprojectors, and is used under a creative commons share alike license.
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