Tammany

Part of speech: noun, adjective

Definitions

1. The powerful Democratic political organization in New York City that was notorious for patronage and corruption ; a Lenape chief from the seventeenth century whose name was later adopted by American societies
2. A New York City Democratic political machine infamous for graft and control of city politics ; a Native American leader of the Lenape people who became a legendary figure honored by patriotic groups
3. The corrupt Democratic political faction that dominated New York City government in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries ; a Delaware Indian chief whose legend gave his name to patriotic societies

Etymology: Tammany began as a name for a real man. Tamanend, or Tammany, was a chief of part of the Lenni-Lenape nation in the Delaware Valley. By the time of the American Revolution, colonists had turned him into a symbol of native virtue and independence, a figure they could admire as distinctly American rather than European. Beginning in 1772, a wave of societies across the colonies took his name, and the most famous was New York City's Society of St. Tammany. That society's name outlived its original purpose. The organization eventually became the New York County Democratic Party organization, and the word came to name a political machine. In that sense, "Tammany" now describes a system of patronage and political control rather than the chief himself, and its meaning followed the fortunes of that organization.