Gerrymandering
Gerrymandering is a corrupt practice employed in the process of setting electoral boundaries, which attempts to give a political advantage to a particular party, candidate or group by manipulating geographic boundaries to create areas or pockets of voters who are expected to vote in a particular way, thereby resulting in an advantage to one interest group , over another. The resulting district is known as a gerrymander; that word can also refer to the process of manipulating electoral boundaries.
History: This corrupt practice was first named by combining the word salamander, with the last name of one Elbridge Gerry, a former governor of Massachusetts, USA. Gerry’s name was incorporated in the coining of this new word because an election district created by members of his party in 1812 resembled a salamander in shape. According to one version of events the shape of the district as it appeared in the press attracted the eye of a painter, one Gilbert Stuart, who decorated the outline shape of the electoral district with a head, wings, and claws and then said "That will do for a salamander!" he said and "Gerrymander!" was the ironic reply from the Editor.