Gerrymander

To gerrymander – the verb is pronounced with a soft ‘g’ and the stress on the first syllable, IPA: /'dʒɛ rɪ ,mæn də/ – is to draw the boundaries of the constituencies within an electoral area in such a way that one political party is given an unfair advantage. The word is also used with a more general meaning: to devise or exploit (any system or procedure) to give oneself (or a group one wishes to favour) an unfair advantage. As a noun ‘gerrymander’ means ‘an example or instance of gerrymandering’.

‘Gerrymander’ is a blend or portmanteau word, a combination of the name ‘Gerry’ and the final two syllables of ‘salamander’. The word was coined in 1812 to describe the redrawing of the constituency boundaries for elections to the Senate of the US state of Massachusetts. The boundaries were redrawn on the orders of the Governor of Massachusetts, Elbridge Gerry (1744-1814) to advantage the Democratic-Republican Party, of which he was a member, and disadvantage the Federalist Party. When the new boundaries were mapped, the shape of one of the constituencies resembled the silhouette of a salamander. (Although the Governor’s surname was pronounced with a hard ‘g’ (IPA: /'gɛ rɪ/), the word gerrymander has always been pronounced with a soft ‘g’.)