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==Early meanings==
=== Euphemism for the dead ===
'The majority' or 'the silent majority' can be traced back to the Roman writer Petronius, who wrote ''abiit ad plures'' (he is gone to the majority) to describe deceased people, since the dead outnumber the living.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.etymologynerd.com/blog/silence-of-the-dead|title=Silence of the Dead}}</ref> (In 2023 there were approximately 14.6 dead for every living person.<ref>{{Cite web |title=How Many People Have Ever Lived on Earth? |url=https://www.prb.org/articles/how-many-people-have-ever-lived-on-earth/ |access-date=2023-07-05 |website=PRB |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.worldatlas.com/feature/how-many-people-have-ever-lived-on-earth.html |title=How Many People Have Ever Lived on Earth? |last=Haub |first=Carl |date=October 2011 |work=Population Reference Bureau |location=Washington, D.C. |access-date=November 13, 2014}} Updated mid-2011, originally published in 1995 in ''Population Today'', Vol. 23 (no. 2), pp. 5–6.</ref>). The phrase was used for much of the 19th century to refer to the dead. Phrases such as "gone to a better world", "gone before", and "joined the silent majority" served as euphemisms for "died".<ref name="Greenough-1920">{{cite book|last=Greenough |first=James Bradstreet |author2=George Lyman Kittredge |title=Words and their ways in English speech |publisher=The Macmillan Company |year=1920 |page=[https://archive.org/details/wordsandtheirwa08kittgoog/page/n318 302] |url=https://archive.org/details/wordsandtheirwa08kittgoog |access-date=April 15, 2010 }}</ref> In 1902, Supreme Court Justice [[John Marshall Harlan]] employed this sense of the phrase, saying in a speech that "great captains on both sides of our Civil War have long ago passed over to the silent majority, leaving the memory of their splendid courage."<ref name="Safire" />
=== Groups of voters ===
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