gerrymandering

ger·ry·man·der

G0106200 (jĕr′ē-măn′dər, gĕr′-)tr.v. ger·ry·man·dered, ger·ry·man·der·ing, ger·ry·man·ders To divide (a geographic area) into voting districts in a way that gives one party an unfair advantage in elections.n.1. The act, process, or an instance of gerrymandering.2. A district or configuration of districts whose boundaries are very irregular due to gerrymandering.

[After Elbridge Gerry + (sala)mander (from the shape of an election district created while Gerry was governor of Massachusetts).]Word History: In 1812, as governor of Massachusetts, Elbridge Gerry signed a bill authorizing the revision of voting districts in his state. Members of Gerry's party redrew them in order to secure their representation in the state senate, and out of Gerry's home county, Essex County, they carved an unlikely-looking district with the shape of a salamander. According to one version of the coining of gerrymander, the shape of the district attracted the eye of the painter Gilbert Stuart, who noticed it on a map in a newspaper editor's office. Stuart decorated the outline of the district with a head, wings, and claws and then said to the editor, "That will do for a salamander!" "Gerrymander!" came the reply. The image created by Stuart first appeared in the March 26, 1812, edition of the Boston Gazette, where it was accompanied by the following title: The Gerrymander. A New Species of Monster, which appeared in the Essex South District in Jan. 1812. The new word gerrymander caught on instantly—within the same year gerrymander is also recorded as a verb. (Gerry's name, incidentally, was pronounced with a hard (g) sound, although the word which has immortalized him is now commonly pronounced with a soft (j) sound.) Gerry ran for reelection in 1812, and popular outrage directed at the flagrant use of the technique we now call gerrymandering doubtless played a role in his defeat.

gerrymandering

1. Redrawing election district boundaries for political purposes (possibly because of Massachusetts governor Elbridge Gerry, 1812). A blackface song and dance act based on a deformed livery stable slave (c. 1833) which came to symbolize racial prejudice.2. The practice of fixing the boundaries of electoral districts in a way that gives unfair advantage to a particular party.

Translations

Gerrymandering

a term from electoral geography designating a particular way of arranging election districts in the USA. Gerrymandering violates the principle of equal representation, which demands that an equal number of voters be represented by an equal number of representatives. By gerrymandering election districts, the governing party creates districts with an unequal number of voters in order to concentrate the votes of the opposition party in one or at most several districts and thus to obtain an advantage in other districts. Gerrymandering also violates the territorial principle by creating oddly shaped districts.

The term “gerrymandering” arose in 1812, when a cartoonist drew such a district in Massachusetts in the shape of a salamander, and the newspaper editor called the drawing a gerrymander, after E. Gerry, the governor of the state at that time.

Although laws passed in the USA in 1842, 1872, and 1902 demand the creation of compact election districts, gerrymandering still continues.

A. A. MISHIN

See Gerrymandering

单词	gerrymandering
释义	gerrymandering ger·ry·man·der G0106200 (jĕr′ē-măn′dər, gĕr′-)tr.v. ger·ry·man·dered, ger·ry·man·der·ing, ger·ry·man·ders To divide (a geographic area) into voting districts in a way that gives one party an unfair advantage in elections.n.1. The act, process, or an instance of gerrymandering.2. A district or configuration of districts whose boundaries are very irregular due to gerrymandering. [After Elbridge Gerry + (sala)mander (from the shape of an election district created while Gerry was governor of Massachusetts).]*Word History:* In 1812, as governor of Massachusetts, Elbridge Gerry signed a bill authorizing the revision of voting districts in his state. Members of Gerry's party redrew them in order to secure their representation in the state senate, and out of Gerry's home county, Essex County, they carved an unlikely-looking district with the shape of a salamander. According to one version of the coining of gerrymander, the shape of the district attracted the eye of the painter Gilbert Stuart, who noticed it on a map in a newspaper editor's office. Stuart decorated the outline of the district with a head, wings, and claws and then said to the editor, "That will do for a salamander!" "Gerrymander!" came the reply. The image created by Stuart first appeared in the March 26, 1812, edition of the Boston Gazette, where it was accompanied by the following title: The Gerrymander. A New Species of Monster, which appeared in the Essex South District in Jan. 1812. The new word gerrymander caught on instantly—within the same year gerrymander is also recorded as a verb. (Gerry's name, incidentally, was pronounced with a hard (g) sound, although the word which has immortalized him is now commonly pronounced with a soft (j) sound.) Gerry ran for reelection in 1812, and popular outrage directed at the flagrant use of the technique we now call gerrymandering doubtless played a role in his defeat. gerrymandering 1. Redrawing election district boundaries for political purposes (possibly because of Massachusetts governor Elbridge Gerry, 1812). A blackface song and dance act based on a deformed livery stable slave (c. 1833) which came to symbolize racial prejudice.2. The practice of fixing the boundaries of electoral districts in a way that gives unfair advantage to a particular party. Translations Gerrymandering Gerrymandering a term from electoral geography designating a particular way of arranging election districts in the USA. Gerrymandering violates the principle of equal representation, which demands that an equal number of voters be represented by an equal number of representatives. By gerrymandering election districts, the governing party creates districts with an unequal number of voters in order to concentrate the votes of the opposition party in one or at most several districts and thus to obtain an advantage in other districts. Gerrymandering also violates the territorial principle by creating oddly shaped districts. The term “gerrymandering” arose in 1812, when a cartoonist drew such a district in Massachusetts in the shape of a salamander, and the newspaper editor called the drawing a gerrymander, after E. Gerry, the governor of the state at that time. Although laws passed in the USA in 1842, 1872, and 1902 demand the creation of compact election districts, gerrymandering still continues. A. A. MISHIN See Gerrymandering LegalSeeGerrymanderThesaurusSeegerrymander
随便看	outbray outbrazen outbreak outbreak excess outbreaking outbreak investigation outbreaks outbreast outbreathe outbred outbredly outbreed outbreeding outbreeding enhancement outbreeding enhancement (heterosis) outbreeding enhancement(heterosis) outbreeds outbribe outbring outbud outbuild outbuilding outbuildings outbulge outbulk