Whig

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
Whig/wɪɡ/

▶noun

• 1 a member of the British reforming party that sought the supremacy of Parliament, succeeded in the 19th century by the Liberal Party.

• 2 a supporter of the American side during the War of American Independence.

  ■ a member of a 19th-century American political party succeeded by the Republicans.

• 3 a 17th-century Scottish Presbyterian.

– derivatives
Whiggery noun,
Whiggish adjective,
Whiggism noun.

– origin C17: prob. a shortening of Scots whiggamore, the nickname of Scottish rebels, from whig ‘to drive’ + mare1.