Minor
addendum: I had heard from several
civil rights leaders from the '
60s that the name
Ku Klux Klan was adapted from the
sequence of sounds made by loading and cocking a
bolt-action rifle:
- Ku - the sound of lifting the bolt
- Klux - the sound of pulling the bolt back and ejecting the spent cartridge
- Klan - the sound of (in one motion) chambering a round by sliding the bolt forward and slapping the bolt down to cock and lock the rifle.
Of course, this may then be a myth. It also might co-exist with the explanation offered by eldritch, above, who appears to have better information than I.