gerrymander
pronunciation
How to pronounce gerrymander in British English:
UK ['dʒerɪmændə(r)]
How to pronounce gerrymander in American English:
US [ˈdʒɛriˌmændɚ, ˈɡɛr-]
-
- Noun:
- an act of gerrymandering (dividing a voting area so as to give your own party an unfair advantage)
-
- Verb:
- divide unfairly and to one's advantage; of voting districts
Word Origin
- gerrymander
- gerrymander: [19] The story goes that in 1812 the governor of Massachusetts, Elbridge Gerry, instituted some electoral boundary changes favourable to his party, the Democrats. When a painter named Stuart saw these outlined on a map in the office of a newspaper editor, he remarked that the resulting area resembled a salamander in shape. ‘A gerrymander, you mean!’ replied the editor – and the term caught on for ‘unfair manipulation of constituency boundaries’.
- gerrymander (v.)
- 1812, "arrange political divisions in disregard of natural boundaries so as to give one party an advantage in elections," also from 1812 as a noun, American English, from name of Elbridge Gerry + (sala)mander. Gerry, governor of Massachusetts, was lampooned when his party redistricted the state in a blatant bid to preserve an Antifederalist majority. One sprawling Essex County district resembled a salamander, and a newspaper editor dubbed it the Gerrymander. Related: Gerrymandered; gerrymandering. [T]he division of this county into districts has given an opportunity for a Caracatura stamped at Boston and freely circulated here called the Gerrymander. The towns as they lie are disposed as parts of a monster whose feet and claws are Salem and Marblehead. It is one of those political tricks which have success as far as they go. [William Bentley, diary, April 2, 1812]
Example
- 1. If you are a democrat you want to gerrymander districts and have an electoral college .
- 2. Some republican success , it is true , was down to recent shameless efforts to gerrymander the nation 's congressional boundaries .
- 3. Gerrymander : there are two principal strategies behind gerrymandering : maximizing the effective votes of supporters , and minimizing the effective votes of opponents .
- 4. If you are a democrat you want to gerrymander districts and have an electoral college . This vastly reduces the number of votes a president needs to win an election .
- 5. A republican gerrymander in north carolina ( reversing the democratic one that preceded it ) is proving a challenge for several more socially conservative " blue-dog " democrats .