Gerry
/ˈdʒɛr.i/noun
A given name, commonly used as a short form of Gerald or Gerard; in informal U.S. English, it can also mean to gerrymander.
Did you know?The political sense comes from Massachusetts governor Elbridge Gerry, whose oddly shaped electoral district was compared to a salamander in an 1812 newspaper cartoon.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Indo-European
PIE
*ǵʰer-
“A reconstructed root associated with scratching, gripping, or wielding; one proposed ancestral source for Germanic weapon-related forms.”
Proto-Germanic
PGmc
*gaizaz
“Spear or pointed weapon; the first element traditionally associated with Gerald.”
Old Germanic
Germanic
*waldaz
“Ruler or power; the second element traditionally associated with Gerald.”
Medieval Germanic
Old High German
Gērwald
“A personal name conventionally interpreted as “spear-power” or “spear ruler.””
Medieval English
English
Gerald
“The established English form of the Germanic personal name.”
Modern English
English
Gerry
“A familiar short form of Gerald or Gerard; later, in U.S. political slang, a verb meaning to manipulate electoral boundaries.”
1812
American English
gerrymander
“A political term formed from Governor Elbridge Gerry’s surname plus “salamander,” after a district caricatured as a monster-shaped creature.”