Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Culture

Don’t Worry About a Maverick in This Campaign

Although I try to keep this a Jewish-language column, sometimes a question is asked of me that offers a pretext for sneaking in an outside issue. Such is a letter I recently received from David H. Margulies of Bethesda, Md. Mr. Margulies writes:

“Contemporary political rhetoric has driven me to explore the origin and meaning of ‘maverick.’ A rather old Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary derives the word from one Samuel A. Maverick, (1803-1870), a western cattle rancher who did not brand his calves, and defines it as meaning: ‘1) An unbranded range animal; esp: a motherless calf; 2) an independent individual who refuses to conform with his group.’ To this, the Oxford English Dictionary adds, ‘A masterless person; one who is roving and casual,’ and ‘Western U.S. Anything dishonestly obtained, as a saddle, mine, or piece of land.’ Thus, part of the difficulty with proudly choosing to call oneself a maverick, as John McCain has done in his campaign, is that the word’s connotations are not necessarily positive. Also, do you have any view, or evidence, as to whether the branding of cattle might be viewed as contrary to Jewish law, and whether the original Samuel Maverick may have been Jewish himself?”

I have no evidence at all, but I do have a view, which is that Samuel Maverick is as likely to have been Jewish as is my Russian-born grandfather to have descended from Apache Indians. Presumably, Mr. Margulies asks this question because of the rabbinic prohibition on tsa’ar ba’alei h.ayyim — that is, on causing animals unnecessary pain, a feature of Jewish law that is not found in other traditional legal systems. But you don’t have to be Jewish to pity animals, and cattle branding, although an ancient custom that already existed in Pharaonic Egypt, is not mentioned in, let alone prohibited by, the Bible or (to the best of my knowledge) any other code of Jewish law.

Yet now that we’ve corralled “maverick” for this column, we can permit ourselves a brief discussion of it. Mr. Margulies is certainly right about the word having changed its ambience over time, moving steadily in a more positive direction. Looking at the word’s use in a political or social context alone, we find my 1961 (although based on older editions) Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary defining a maverick as “A refractory or recalcitrant individual who bolts his party or group and initiates an independent course”; my 1966 Random House Dictionary of the English Language giving us “A dissenter, as an intellectual, an artist, or a politician,” and my 1999 Encarta World English Dictionary offering an “independent person… who refuses to conform to the accepted or orthodox thinking on a subject.”

From a disagreeably “recalcitrant individual” to a neutrally viewed “dissenter” to a gutsily “independent person” is a fair stretch for a word to travel in half a century. Clearly, it’s better to be considered a maverick today than it once was. But for that very reason, I don’t think Mr. Margulies need worry that John McCain, by advertising himself as one, may be giving Americans the impression that he is recalcitrant. When words shift meanings, their speakers are quick to adjust. In 1960, “awesome” could mean only inspiring fear and wonderment, but no one thinks that’s what you mean when you call a rock band awesome today.

In general, languages are never static. Although we who speak them may have the impression that the words we use are like items in a department store, all having their assigned place and value and waiting to be taken off a shelf, they are more like the flora and fauna of a jungle, each inhabiting an ecological niche that may be in the process of expanding or contracting, and each competing for living space — some being born and others growing old and dying, some devouring others and others being devoured.

The words that change most quickly are usually slang words that sometimes have life spans of only a few years. Those that change the slowest do so at a glacial pace. (That’s pre-global warming, of course; the word “glacial” itself is now undergoing a meltdown.) “Nice,” which is one of the most commonly used adjectives in the English language, has meant what it means today since the 18th century; before that, however, it also meant foolish, wanton, extravagant, elegant, rare, slothful, delicate, effeminate, coy, modest, fastidious and finely discriminating. (This last meaning perished not long ago. Within recent memory you could still say “That’s a nice distinction” and be understood to be talking about something subtle, not about something pleasant.)

“Maverick” was originally a negative word because, among ranchers and cowboys, someone who didn’t brand his cattle was considered headstrong and irresponsible; he’d end up having the cattle stolen and causing quarrels over their ownership. Nowadays, not only are we all against tsa’ar ba’alei h.ayyim, but we’re also hungry for authentic-sounding politicians who have their own opinions and stick to them, so that “maverick” has found a new environment in which to prosper. Mr. Maverick, were he alive today, might even have ended up being nominated for vice president. If elected, though, he wouldn’t have been the first Jewish one.

Questions for Philologos can be sent to [email protected].

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.

If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.

Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism. 

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.