Words Worth

cabal \kuh-BAHL\ noun

*1 : the artifices and intrigues of a group of persons secretly united in a plot (as to overturn a government); also : a group engaged in such artifices and intrigues

2 : club, group

In _A Child's History of England_, Charles Dickens associates the word "cabal" with a group of five ministers in the government of England's King Charles II. The initial letters of the names or titles of those men (Clifford, Arlington, Buckingham, Ashley, and Lauderdale) spelled "cabal," and Dickens dubbed them the "Cabal Ministry." These five men were widely regarded as invidious, secretive plotters and their activities may have encouraged English speakers to associate "cabal" with high-level government intrigue. But their names are not the source of the word "cabal," which was in use decades before Charles II ascended the throne. The term can be traced back through French to "cabbala," the Medieval Latin name for the Kabbalah, a traditional system of esoteric Jewish mysticism.