- Joined
- Dec 13, 2006
- Messages
- 6,621
- Reaction score
- 105
- Points
- 63
- Location
- Wappingers Falls, NY
- Country
- United States
I learned something new last night.
From www.wordspy.com/words/packingandcracking.asp:
"The unfair redrawing of electoral boundaries has long been known as gerrymandering (1812). As weird as it may sound, it was the combination of the last name of Elbridge Gerry, a former governor of Massachusetts, and salamander (a small lizard-like amphibian) that gave us the word gerrymander.
This strange beast was formed when governor Gerry reshaped his state's voting districts to favor his party. One such district looked suspiciously like a salamander, and was drawn as such (albeit in highly stylized form) in an editorial cartoon (left) by Gilbert Stuart. His editor immediately dubbed the creature a "Gerry-mander," and the name stuck. (Some trivia: Stuart was the same man who painted the portrait of George Washington that appears on the U.S. $1 bill.) "
From www.wordspy.com/words/packingandcracking.asp:
"The unfair redrawing of electoral boundaries has long been known as gerrymandering (1812). As weird as it may sound, it was the combination of the last name of Elbridge Gerry, a former governor of Massachusetts, and salamander (a small lizard-like amphibian) that gave us the word gerrymander.
This strange beast was formed when governor Gerry reshaped his state's voting districts to favor his party. One such district looked suspiciously like a salamander, and was drawn as such (albeit in highly stylized form) in an editorial cartoon (left) by Gilbert Stuart. His editor immediately dubbed the creature a "Gerry-mander," and the name stuck. (Some trivia: Stuart was the same man who painted the portrait of George Washington that appears on the U.S. $1 bill.) "
