Filibusterer

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. An individual who delays or prevents legislative action by speaking at length to obstruct the decision-making process
2. Someone who uses extended speeches to block or slow down the passage of laws in a legislative body
3. A person who deliberately prolongs debate in a legislature to hinder or stop the approval of measures

Etymology: The word is simply "filibuster" plus the agent suffix "-er", so the interesting history belongs to its base. "Filibuster" came into English in the 1850s from Spanish "filibustero", a term for a freebooter or pirate, which itself came from Dutch "vrijbuiter", meaning "freebooter". The Dutch word is built from "vrij", free, and "buiter", plunderer, and it passed into Spanish and French before reaching English. The sense of obstructing a legislature by speaking at length arose in the United States in the 1850s, when Senate debates were used to block bills, and the agent noun "filibusterer" follows naturally from that verb-like use.