bandwagon

Origin: 1881

The date 1881 is admittedly just a guess for an as yet undocumented transition: the moment when the circus bandwagon, first mentioned in 1855, became a figurative expression for a burgeoning political movement, a sense seemingly well established in 1893. Making the transition smoother, but also harder to detect, is the similarity between circus and politics.

Phineas T. Barnum (1810-91) was the first great publicizer of the original bandwagon, as he was of so many other acts in the nineteenth-century circus of American life and politics. He is supposed to have said, "There's a sucker born every minute," and he did his best to attract every one of them first to his American Museum in New York City and later to his traveling circus. He exhibited the first Siamese twins (Cheng and Eng, from Siam), the singer Jenny Lind from Sweden, and Jumbo the elephant. And to stir up enthusiasm for the circus, he paraded the performers through town, using a bandwagon to call attention to them and rouse enthusiasm.

Barnum mentions the bandwagon in his youthful autobiography of 1855. It was no ordinary wagon, but was brightly and elaborately decorated on its tall paneled sides. Behind these decorations, but on a platform high enough to be easily visible to bystanders, sat the brightly and elaborately costumed members of the band.

The later figurative uses of bandwagon may be observed, for example, in the Congressional Record for August 25, 1893: "It is a lamentable fact that...our commercial enemy... should come along with a band wagon loaded with hobgoblins." And in 1906: "Many of those Democrats;" warned the New York Evening Post, "who rushed into the Bryan bandwagon...will now be seen crawling out over the tailboard."

In William Safire's definition, the modern bandwagon is "a movement appealing to the herd instinct of politicians and voters to be on the winning side." Those who join such campaigns are said to be jumping in or hopping on the bandwagon. Though literal bandwagons are now to be found only in circus museums, figurative ones roll through American politics as merrily as ever.

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Note: click on a word meaning below to see its connections and related words.

The noun has 2 meanings:

Meaning #1: a popular trend that attracts growing support

Meaning #2: a large ornate wagon for carrying a musical band

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Dansk (Danish)
n. - vogn med orkester (i optog)

Nederlands (Dutch)
mode, versierde wagen met muzikanten meedoen met succesvol iets

Français (French)
n. - mouvement, tendance

Deutsch (German)
n. - Wagen einer Musikkapelle, erfolgreiche Bewegung

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - άρμα μουσικής μπάντας, συρμός, κυρίαρχη τάση

Italiano (Italian)
carro della banda musicale

idioms:

• jump on the bandwagon    saltare sul carro

Português (Portuguese)
n. - carro (m) de propaganda política (EUA), popularidade (fig.)

idioms:

• jump on the bandwagon    ir na onda

Русский (Russian)
партия с перевесом

idioms:

• jump on the bandwagon    примкнуть к партии с перевесом

Español (Spanish)
n. - carro de la banda de música, partido político que triunfa

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - musikkapellets vagn, vinnarsidan

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
乐队花车, 流行

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 樂隊花車, 流行

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 악대차

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 楽隊車, 人気のあるグループ, 時流に乗った動き

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) فعاليه رائجه‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮קרון התזמורת‬

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