Ku Klux Klan
Ku-Klux is a variation on the Greek kuklos meaning circle. The Klan is obviously from clan, with the k used for alliterative purposes.
The name dates to 1867 and was chosen by the group’s founders. Their exact reasons for the choice are not known for certain, but a circle implies a secret circle or society, a symbol for continuity, a symbol for perfection, and lots of other mystical imagery. From the Pulaski, Tennessee Citizen of 29 March 1867:
The Kuklux Klan will assemble at their usual place of rendezvous...exactly at the hour of midnight, in costume and bearing the arms of the Klan.
A common folkloric origin is that the name of the group comes from the sound of a gun cocking. This is bunk.
(Source: Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd Edition)
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Copyright 1997-2008, by David Wilton
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the roots of the word perfection are translated from the greek word for circle are they not? the word perfect being used by phliosophers (through translation) as a circular process or argument. The form of the prefect argument being able to like the conclusion back to the original premise fluently in the way that Socrates argues with Callicles in the Gorgias, manipluating his opponants statements until they get caught in the perfect circle with the original question repeated at the conclusion of the challange?