Lately, I have noticed increased use of the term “jury-rigged”. Shouldn’t that be “jerry-rigged” (from the WWII derogatory term for Germans, and their supposed propensity for technical improvisation)?
I know what a rigged jury is, but jury-rigged just doesn’t seem to make sense.
The expression is “jury-rigged”, and has been in common currency among nautical types for at least the last 250 years; there is no connection with “jerry” as a derogatory term for Germans.
See http://www.word-detective.com/back-g2.html#juryrig for more info.
“Ain’t no man can avoid being born average, but there ain’t no man got to be common.” –Satchel Paige
I think this is a case where two phrases have become confused - they don’t really mean the same thing.
Jury-rig was originally a naval term and meant an emergency repair. If you lost a mast, you rigged up a jury mast in its place. It did the job until you reached a port where you could have the mast properly replaced.
Jerry-rigged means something shoddy, that probably won’t hold together. I think it began as Jerry-built - a slam at the Germans during WWI - and meant cheaply made.
rackensack beat me to it. Any good dictionary will give the nautical definition for jury; anything that is makeshift or temporary. The word in it’s nautical sense has nothing to do with courts or trials. It’s just a coincidence that they are spelled and pronounced the same way.
I think your confusing the origin of “jerry-rig” with that of “jerry can” which I belive was used by the tanks and other vehicles of the German army.
Thank you. That clears it up nicely.
Think you’re right about “jerry-rig,” Papa. My thesaurus lists “jerry-rig” as a synonym for “imperfect,” and “jerrybuild” as:
Doesn’t mention Germans at all, but I’ll need to grab the ol’ OED for a good etymology.
-andros-
OK, my trusty OED confirms the link above (not that I doubted the link, Rackensack).
“Jerry,” meaning bad, defective, and deceptive, first turned up in a Lancashire paper in 1882. So presumably it was in vulgar use for some time prior. “Jerry-rig” and “jerry-built” are it’s direct heirs.
And just for the hell of it, “jury-rig” originates from “jury mast,” a temporary mast to replace a broken one, and dates all the way back to 1616. The book notes that it may have originated from “injury mast,” but has no confirmation of that.
Probably more than you wanted to know, Sleepy.
-andros-
Just looked up jerry-build in Webster’s. The etymology is very confusing, indeed.
The “jerry” in question is slang for a chamberpot and comes from “jeroboam” which is an old wine bottle. I guess we are supposed to be left with the impression of something serving as a poor substitute (ie, using a wine bottle as a toilet).
Curiously enough, Webster also traces back the origin of “jerry can” to “jeroboam”. Must have been some freaky looking wine bottles. I wish I had a picture.
I found yet another opinion on the origin of jerry-built: World Wide Words
According to that site, “We also have the term jerry-built, for a house that’s been thrown up using unsatisfactory materials; this dates from the middle of the nineteenth century and is sometimes said to derive from the name of a Liverpool firm of builders (one with a reputation that has travelled, obviously) or possibly a contraction of Jericho (whose walls fell down, you will remember, at the blast of a trumpet). Neither has been substantiated, I’m sorry to say.”
I guess I assumed “jerry-rigged” sought to disparage Germans because of the other phrase I’ve heard, “nigger-rigged.”
Wow, thanks guys. I would have never thought to ask. I just always assumed that jury-rigged came about as a different wording of jury tampering. Therefore if you jury-rigged something, changed something from how it was meant to be.
My name is Enright3
and I learned something today.
This came up on another BBS, and I did a bit of research on it from my library’s collection of books of slang and idioms, and the best explanation I found was that the jury of jury rig is actually the French jure meaning, “For a day.”
Brewer’s suggests that “jerry-rigged” is actually a corruption of “jury-rigged,” similar to the explanation on the link provided by aseymayo:
and the stars o’erhead were dancing heel to toe
Ursa, Brewer’s also deals with this matter. The usual size of a wine bottle, especially champagne, was 26 2/3 fluid ounces (approximately one quart). Out-size bottles had special names:
Magnum - holding 2 ordinary bottles.
Double-magnum or Jeroboam - holding 4 ordinary bottles.
Rehoboam - holding 6 ordinary bottles.
Methuselah - holding 8 ordinary bottles.
Salmanazar - holding 12 ordinary bottles.
Balthazar - holding 16 ordinary bottles.
Nebuchadnezzar - holding 20 ordinary bottles.
Sort of like those “Texas mickeys” that you see in a bar.
and the stars o’erhead were dancing heel to toe
And the relationship to jerimander…? 
“The dawn of a new era is felt and not measured.” Walter Lord
Here’s another etymology link:
http://randomhouse.com/wotd/?date=19960711
They too trace the expression to the French, but to a different word.
“The dawn of a new era is felt and not measured.” Walter Lord
Beruang,
maybe you celebrate a successful gerrymander with a couple of jeroboams?
and the stars o’erhead were dancing heel to toe