Poll is derived from an old Germanic word meaning head. This was later used for the process of counting heads when people actually raised hands or stood up to be counted during elections. This is also how the phrase was coined.

Electorate, on the other hand, is a more recent word ? first recorded in the late 19th century. Before then, we use to be the electors. What today is our franchise (the right to vote), meant ?freedom, as opposed to subjectivity? in the 13th century. From there on, the word evolved to mean ?legal immunity to prosecution? to ?granting of a privilege? to ?elective franchise?. Voting itself is based on the Latin votum, which means ?taking a vow? or ?making a wish?.

Ballot comes to us from the Italian balotta (little ball). That was way before the days of EVMs, when people dropped a ball in an urn representing their chosen candidate. If you wonder why our leaders never seem to be garbed in anything but white, the word candidate itself comes from the Greek word candidus, meaning ?dressed in white? and in those days, white was colour of the traditional clothing of the Roman senators.

Our Parliament comes from the old French parlement, which, in the days of yore, meant a ?talk or consultation? (in turn derived from parler ? to speak). Parlement later took on the same meaning as ?formal consultative body? and then ?legislative body?. Legislator, meanwhile, is derived from two Latin words meaning legis+ator ? ?a proposer of a law?.

Committee comes from commit+ee and it originally meant ?an individual to whom some job is committed?. Thus, the 24 Committees of East India Company was not the heights of bureaucracy, but 24 individuals who would now be called its ?directors?. It was only in 17th century when the word started being used for ?a body? rather than its members.

Hustings, the entire proceedings of an election campaign, in medieval times was a private council called by a leader. Later this word became a proper noun for one London court (the court of Husting) and by the seventeenth century it meant a judge?s seat. Further down the years, the word referred to the platform on which candidates stood to address the electors.