GERRYMANDER (usually pronounced "jerrymander," but the g was originally pronounced hard), an American expression which has taken root in the English language, meaning to arrange election districts so as to give an unfair advantage to the party in power by means of a redistribution act, or to manipulate con stituencies generally. The word is derived from the name of the American politician Elbridge Gerry (q.v.). It was, however, only a new name for an old practice. In the American colonial period political advantage was often obtained by changing county lines. See John Fiske, Civil Government in the United States (1890) ; E. C. Griffith, The Rise and Development of the Gerrymander (1907) ; J. W. Dean, "History of the Gerrymander," in New England Historical and Genealogical Register, vol. xlvi. (1892) .