Balica.
323. _Cabal._--I should like to know the earliest use of this word as
signifying "a secret council," and, as a verb, "to plot or intrigue."
Pepys applies it to the king's confidential advisers several years
before the date (1672) when Burnet remarks that the word was composed of
the initials of the five chief ministers; and Dryden uses the verb in
the sense I have mentioned. Can any of your correspondents trace either
verb or noun to an earlier period, or explain this application of it?
The Hebrew verb _kibbal_ signifies "to receive;" and the _Cabbala_ was
so called from its being "traditionary," not from its being "secret." A
popular error on this point may, however, have given rise to the
above-mentioned application of the word.