a faction of the Democratic Party in New York (c. 1835)
b.
a member of this faction
3. Archaic
any Democrat
Word origin
coined (c. 1834) after locomotive, interpreted as “self-(moving)” + It fuoco, fire < L focus: see : sense focus (sense 2) from the use of such matches in Tammany Hall, Oct. 22, 1835, by one faction to restorelights extinguished by another