The fact that political parties are called ‘parties’ has always struck me as odd. That English is such a contrary language it could use the same word for a celebratory social gathering and a formal political organization is no surprise. It’s exactly what you’d expect from the lexicon that brought you such mind-boggling homonyms as ‘date’ (‘I’ve just been on a hot date and we ate some dried dates’) and ‘kettle’ (‘I’m desperate for a cuppa, pop the kettle on’ or, as I once experienced, ‘I’m desperate for a wee but the cops have just formed a kettle’).
Unlike the above, the definitions of ‘party’ do actually have a few similarities. For example, bad parties of both kinds tend to be predictable and boring: the same old people listening to the same staid, stuck records. While good ones are usually loud, raucous, energetic affairs that the police would like to shut down.
