Filibuster

To filibuster – the verb is intransitive and is pronounced with the main stress on the first syllable, IPA: /'fɪ lɪ ,bʌs tə/ – is to make long speeches or engage in other delaying tactics (in a legislative body such as Parliament) with the intention of obstructing the approval of a proposed law or policy to which the speaker strongly objects. The word filibuster is also used as a noun to denote an instance or example of filibustering; the practice may be referred to as filibusterism; and the person who engages in the practice is a filibuster or filibusterer.

Filibusterism is possible (though arguably not often defensible) when a limited period has been allocated for discussion of a proposed law or policy and a vote to approve or reject it must be held before the end of this period. The aim of the filibuster is to fill up the period with speechmaking and leave no time for a vote to be held, thereby preventing approval of the proposed law or policy. Although the word filibuster was first used with this meaning only in the 19th century (see further below), the practice is ancient. It was famously employed, for example, in the first century BCE, in the final years of the Roman Republic, by the politician Cato the Younger (Marcus Porcius Cato Uticensis (95-46 BCE)), one of Julius Caesar’s most implacable enemies: when a proposal to which he was opposed came before the Senate, he would, if necessary, speak until nightfall, by which time the Senate was required to have completed the day’s business, and so leave no opportunity for a vote.

The word filibuster comes from the Spanish filibustero, which means ‘buccaneer or freebooter’. Filibuster was first used in English, in the 17th century, to mean ‘buccaneer, freebooter, irregular military adventurer’: it was used particularly of the pirates who pillaged the Spanish colonies in America and later, in the mid-19th century, of American adventurers who incited revolution in some of the states of Latin America. This remains one of the meanings of filibuster in contemporary English – though not its most common meaning.

The word filibuster was first used with the meaning ‘to obstruct by making long speeches’ in the United States in 1853 when it was applied to a speech by Abraham Watkins Venable (1799-1876), a Democratic member of Congress, against filibustering activity in Cuba.

In British English, as well as the verb ‘to filibuster’, there is the phrasal verb ‘to talk out’, which is transitive. Thus we might say that the opponents of a bill tried to talk it out, or that the bill was eventually talked out. (For more on the various expressions involving the verb ‘’to talk out’, see Talk out.)