462. Mr. Pickering.on the present state of the English language 
English traveller: “ Here a sufficient, though not very agreeable road, is 
' formed by causeysof logs ; or, in the language of the country, itis dridged.” 
Kendall’s Travels, vol. i. p. 235. 
BRIEF ; prevalent ; used in speaking of arumour, as wellas of ida dis- 
tempers. It is mostly used in the interiour of New England, Grose has 
it in his Glossary among the frovincial words of the nor¢h of England. - 
BRUSH for Brush-wood. Mew England. | ‘The word ety in this, sense, is 
not noticed, I believe, by any of the English lexi , except Mason, 
who cites Sfenser as his authority for it. It is dinbtless obsolete in Eng- 
land. Mr. Webster has both drush and drush-wood. 
te CALCULATE ; to think, suppose, or expect; as, I calculate he will ¢y 
such a thing. | The use of this ‘word, with some others, in the country 
towns of New England, j is thus ridiculed by an’ English trayeller—* The 
at are he shag 1% says Nathan, though I ae as how this is a firo- 
; a res Travels in Canada and th € U. States, 
‘ip. 506, 28 edit. London; 1: aici toads, = 
CAUCUS. This 1 noun is used Seren ehoet the United Sater as a cant term 
for those meetings which are held by the different political parties, for 
the purpose of agreeing upon candidates for office, or concerting any meas- 
ure “which — they intend to carry at the subsequent: fudlicy or town- 
meetings. The earliest account I haye seen of this extraordinary word is 
the following, from Gordon’s History of the ererioge Revolutiony pub- 
- ished at London in the year 1788, - 
“The word Caucus (says the author) aaa its derivative caueusing, 
are often used in Boston. The last answers much to what we style parlia- 
- menteering, or electioneering. All my repeated applications to different 
gentlemen have not furnished me with a satisfactory account of caucus. It 
seems to mean a number of persons, whether more or less, met together to 
consult upon adopting and prosecuting some scheme of policy for carrying 
_a favorite point. The. word is not of novel invention. _More than fifty 
years ago, Mr. Samuel. Adams’ father and twenty | others, one or. two from 
the north end of the town, where all the ship-business is s carried on, used to 
