Etymology

silent majority

Today it means: The largest portion of a demographic group or of the population of a political jurisdiction, which is considered to possess political and social views that are not openly declared, but that can nevertheless significantly affect voting patterns and social behavior. Full definition →

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The story

Popularized in contemporary usage by U.S. President Richard Nixon in a speech on November 3, 1969. The older sense for "the dead" was used in English since the 19th century, and further back in Latin by the Roman writer Petronius, who wrote abiit ad plures (“he has gone to the majority”) to describe the dead.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.