Ed Quillen

Arizona Sen. John McCain may have sewn up the Republican nomination, but he still has many critics in his own GOP who accuse him of infidelity to the party on issues that range from immigration to campaign finance reform. Further, they complain, he gets kid-glove treatment from the fawning Biased Liberal Media, because he is portrayed as a “maverick Republican” rather than, say, as a “renegade Republican.”

Both “maverick” and “renegade” denote someone who doesn’t go with the flow, but their connotations are certainly different. “Maverick” implies independence, whereas “renegade” suggests betrayal.

The words we choose do matter, especially in a political season. That’s why the campaigns employ “spin” specialists — to apply favorable phrasing to a given event. Thus the recent actions of the Federal Reserve can be described as either “a bailout for billionaires” or an effort “to maintain the viability of our capital markets.”

Back to “maverick.” I knew it as a term that originated in cow country, and had heard it used to describe one of those ornery steers that refused to associate with the herd at fall roundup. But the word has a history that makes it hard to determine just what it should mean.

Like “boycott,” “silhouette,” and “sandwich,” “maverick” is an eponym — a word that comes from someone’s name. In this case, the authorities all agree it comes from one
Samuel Augustus Maverick, who lived from 1803 to 1870. A native of South Carolina and a graduate of Yale, he eventually settled in Texas, where he practiced law, served in the legislature, and acquired thousands of acres where he ran cattle, mostly in the San Antonio area.

Unlike most stockmen, Maverick refused to brand his cattle. Thus, as one version goes, any unbranded critter was jokingly called one of Maverick’s. By 1872, a maverick was any unbranded livestock, and was presumed to be free for acquisition by the first outfit to slap on a brand.

So we go from major landowner’s unbranded livestock to some beef on the hoof that’s free for the taking. And by 1890, the Century Dictionary defined maverick as a Western term for “anything dishonestly obtained, as a saddle, mine, or piece of land,” and that “to maverick” was “to take possession of without any legal claim.”

That’s hardly a compliment, and it doesn’t fit with the current use of maverick to describe someone who doesn’t always follow the herd. Perhaps that sense comes not from Sam Maverick’s cattle, but Sam Maverick himself.

After all, everybody else branded cattle, but he didn’t, and that sounds like something a “maverick” might do. As a member of the Texas legislature in 1861, he supported Gov. Sam Houston in his opposition to secession despite its popularity; that, too, is something a “maverick” would do.

But when it came time to a vote at a special convention to decide on secession, then Sam Maverick, like the vast majority of Texas delegates, supported leaving the Union.

Not exactly the act of a maverick even if he was a Maverick, but this may explain why the term could fit McCain well, given how he’s been on both sides of the Bush tax cuts, Jerry Falwell, the Confederate flag, and assorted other issues.

This Maverick definition of maverick appears in no dictionary, but it’s something to think about the next time you hear of a maverick politician — the term might not be intended as a compliment.