The term "psephology" is based on a Greek word. What does that word mean?

Psephology is a branch of political science, the quantitative analysis of elections and balloting. The discipline attempts to explain elections using scientific methods and is related to political forecasting. It is sometimes known as political analysis.

Some of the most important tools used by a psephologist are historical precinct voting data, campaign finance information, and other related data; in addition public opinion polls play a central role. Psephology also has applications specifically in analysing the results of election returns for current indicators, as opposed to predictive purposes. An instance of this is the Gallagher Index that was developed to measure an electoral system's relative disproportionality between votes received and seats allotted in a legislature.

The term “psephology” comes from the Greek word for pebble, “psephos”; the reason for this is that the ancient Greeks used pebbles to vote. It was coined in 1948 in the United Kingdom by W. F. R. Hardie (1902–1990) after he was asked by his friend R. B. McCallum to come up with a word to describe the study of elections.The first written use of the word was in 1952. It came to be associated with the pioneering work of Sir David Butler (17 October 1924 – 8 November 2022) a British psephologist whose career spanned more than 70 years.