(pronounced with the ‘g’ hard, as in ‘get’), verb. (political American).—To arrange the electoral subdivisions of a State to the profit and advantage of a particular party.
[The term, says Norton, is derived from the name of Governor Gerry, of Massachusetts, who, in 1811, signed a Bill readjusting the representative districts so as to favour the Democrats and weaken the Federalists, although the last-named party polled nearly two-thirds of the votes cast. A fancied resemblance of a map of the districts thus treated led Stuart, the painter, to add a few lines with his pencil, and say to Mr. Russell, editor of the Boston Sentinel, ‘That will do for a Salamander.’ Russell glanced at it: ‘Salamander,’ said he, ‘call it a GERRYMANDER! The epithet took at once, and became a Federalist war-cry, the caricature being published as a campaign document.]
1871. Boston Daily Advertiser, 6 Dec. GERRIMANDER was the name printed under a picture of a pretended monster, whose shape was modified from the distorted geography which Mr. Gerry’s friends inflicted on part of the State for the sake of economizing majorities.
