Locofoco

[ loh-koh-foh-koh ]

noun

1. (sometimes lowercase) a member of the radical faction of the New York City Democrats, organized in 1835 to oppose the conservative members of the party.
2. (lowercase) a friction match or cigar developed in the 19th century, ignited by rubbing against any hard, dry surface.

Word History and Origins

Origin of Locofoco¹

Special use of locofoco (cigar), self-lighting, rhyming compound apparently based on loco(motive), taken to mean self-moving; -foco, alteration of Italian fuoco fire < Latin focus fireplace

Example Sentences

Hawthorne's Custom-House But a few rods from Herbert Street is the Custom-House where Hawthorne did irksome duty as "Locofoco Surveyor," its exterior being—except for the addition of a cupola—essentially unchanged since his description was written, and its interior being even more somnolent than of yore.

From Project Gutenberg

Sportswriter John Kieran was able to distinguish between dodo, zobo, koto, Yo-Yo, popo, bolo, and locofoco.

From Time Magazine Archive

Dat he sprinciple; he kyarn vote for Locofoco, I don' keer ef he is Miss Charlotte pa, much less her step-pa.

From Project Gutenberg

Bartlett's "Dictionary of Americanisms" is full of words of this kind—locofoco, for example—which lived their short lives, and then passed not only out of use, but out of memory.

From Project Gutenberg

There must have been some Locofoco boys, of course, for my boy and his friends used to advance, on their side, the position that "Democrats Eat dead rats!"

From Project Gutenberg