Politics in the twenty-first century United States is rarely orderly and well-organized. Some observers describe today’s political process with words such as pandemonium, chaos, and riot.
Pandemonium
In 1667, John Milton coined the word Pandæmonium from the Greek word pan meaning “all” and the Late Latin word daemonium meaning “evil spirit” which came from the Greek daimonion meaning “inferior divine power.” In Milton’s epic poem “Paradise Lost” Pandæmonium was the name of the palace built in the middle of Hell.
By 1779, Pandæmonium had become pandemonium and had acquired the meaning of “a place of uproar” and by 1865 it also acquired the meaning of “wild, lawless confusion.”
Chaos
The word chaos first appears in English in the late fourteenth century with the meaning of “gaping void.” Some sources see chaos coming into English from the Old French chaos while others feel that it came directly from the Latin chaos. The Old French chaos is from the Latin. The Latin chaos is from the Greek kháos meaning “abyss, that which gapes wide open, is vast and empty.” Going back further in time, the origin of chaos is the Proto-Indo-European root *gheu- meaning “to gape, yawn.”
By about 1600, chaos was being used to mean “utter confusion” which seems to have come from the theological use of chaos for “the void at the beginning of creation” in the Vulgate (i.e. common) version of Genesis in the English Bible.
Also, about 1600 chaos was also being used with the meaning of “orderless confusion.”
It should be noted that the Greek kháos is also the basis of the English word gas. The Flemish chemist J. B. van Helmont (1577-1644) used kháos to indicate an ultra-refined form of water. The Greek kh is roughly the same as the Flemish g and so the word acquired the spelling of gas.
Riot
English acquired the word riot about 1200 with the meaning of “debauchery, extravagance, wanton living.” It came in to English from the Old French riote meaning “dispute, quarrel, tedious talk, chattering, argument, domestic strife.” In Old French riote was also a euphemism for sexual intercourse. The Old French riote may have come from the Medieval Latin riota meaning “quarrel, dispute, uproar” or from the Latin verb rugire meaning “to roar.”
In the late fourteenth century, riot was used to mean “public disturbance.”
The expression run riot was first used in the 1520s coming from the metaphor indicating that the hounds were following the wrong scent.
In 1714, the Parliament of Great Britain passed the Riot Act which authorized local authorities to declare a group of twelve or more people to be unlawfully assembled. The group would then be read the act which required them to disperse or have punitive action taken against them. The group had one hour to disperse and those who remained would be considered guilty of a felony punishable by death without benefit of clergy. This was the wording of the Act:
“Our sovereign lord the King chargeth and commandeth all persons, being assembled, immediately to disperse themselves, and peaceably to depart to their habitations, or to their lawful business, upon the pains contained in the act made in the first year of King George, for preventing tumults and riotous assemblies. God save the King.”
In the United States, the principles of the Riot Act were incorporated into the 1792 Militia Act.