Origin Story
In February 1812, Governor Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts signed a bill redrawing the state senate districts in a way that favored his own Democratic-Republican party. One result was a long, contorted district in Essex County. On 26 March of that year, the Boston Gazette printed a cartoon that added wings, claws, and a head to the map of that district, making it resemble a salamander. The caption read "The Gerry-mander," joining the governor's surname to salamander. The drawing is traditionally attributed to Elkanah Tisdale, while the question of who actually coined the name has several competing answers and remains unsettled. The word itself, however, spread through American newspapers within the year and has carried the same meaning for more than two centuries.
Gerry himself might reasonably have felt aggrieved. He was a signer of the Declaration of Independence and later Vice President, and he did not personally draft the bill in question. Even the pronunciation went astray: his surname began with a hard [ɡ], but the word gerrymander, pulled along by salamander, settled on a soft [dʒ]. Etymology does not always preserve a person's name faithfully.
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Online Etymology Dictionarygerrymander (v.): 1812, from Elbridge Gerry + (sala)mander; from the shape of an election district formed during Gerry's term as governor of Massachusetts
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Oxford English Dictionarygerrymander: from the name of Governor Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts + salamander, from the shape of an electoral district created in 1812
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Merriam-Webster Dictionarygerrymander: Elbridge Gerry + salamander; from the shape of an election district formed during Gerry's governorship; first known use 1812
Word Evolution
Words from the Same Root
Memory Hook
Gerry + salamander. When a district map twists like a salamander, that is a gerrymander.
""A word made by a single cartoon has outlasted the statute that provoked it.""
