Etymology

rotten borough

rot·ten bor·ough

Today it means: A parliamentary borough that was represented in Parliament although the number of voters had diminished so greatly that they were largely controlled by the main landowner; such boroughs were abolished in the 19th century. Full definition →

First used mid 18th c.
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The story

From rotten (“in a state of decay”) + borough (“type of administrative district”), because such boroughs were regarded as having “decayed” due to their voters moving away to other places.

First known use, by meaning

  • from mid 18th c. A parliamentary borough that was represented in Parliament although the number of voters had diminished so greatly that they were largely controlled by the main landowner; such boroughs were abolished in the 19th century.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.