Text 8994, 74 rader
Skriven 2006-09-24 12:48:00 av Robert E Starr JR (9491.babylon5)
Ärende: Re: Can You BELIEVE This?
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Josh Hill wrote:

> Not according to the definitions I found online. "Jerry-rigged" is a
> combination of from "jury-rigged" and "jerry-built." As to
> "Jerry-built,"

In matters such as this, I usually turn to the always-helpful Evan
Morris, The Word Detective.  (www.word-detective.com)

Caught in the rigging.

Dear Word Detective: I'm curious about the word "jerryrig," as in to
make do with materials on hand. I recently saw it spelled "juryrig,"
but the context seemed to be the same. Is the correct spelling "jerry"
or "jury" and what is the origin of the word? What, if anything, does
it have to do with a rigged jury? -- Jill Fitzpatrick, via the
Internet.

Not much, if anything. Then again, some of the juries running around
out there these days could probably do with a little jury-rigging,
perhaps a little money under the table for paying attention to the
simple facts of the case. Between turning certain people loose in the
face of mountains of evidence and fining other folks millions of
dollars for lying on their job applications, juries are rather rapidly
reaching a level of credibility formerly attained only by UFOlogists
and mail-order psychics.

In any case, the "jury-rig" (it is usually hyphenated) you're asking
about has nothing whatever to do with juries in the judicial sense.
"Jury" was originally a naval term for any makeshift contrivance
substituting for the real thing in an emergency, most commonly found in
the term "jury-mast," a temporary mast constructed in place of one that
had been broken. There's some debate about where the word "jury" in
this sense came from, with the leading (but unverified) theory being
that it was short for "injury."

To say that something is "jerryrigged" is to mix idioms a bit, because
the proper term is "jerrybuilt." A "jerrybuilder," a term dating to
19th-century England, was originally a house builder who constructed
flimsy homes from inferior materials. The "jerry" in the term may have
been a real person known for the practice, or may be a mangled form of
"jury," as in "jury-rigged." I tend to think that "jerrybuilt" arose
separately from "jury-rig" simply because their senses are slightly
different. Something that is "jury-rigged" is concocted on the spur of
the moment to meet an emergency, but something "jerrybuilt" is
deliberately constructed of inferior materials to turn a quick buck.

Copyright =A9 1997 by Evan Morris.
http://www.word-detective.com/back-g2.html#juryrig

Nothing about Germans.  Even if there *were*, there is nothing
derogatory about "Jerry" as a nickname for members of the German Army,
anymore than "Fritz" in the same context or "Tommy" for a British
soldier, "Joe" or "G.I. Joe" for an American or "Ivan" for a Russian.
If anything using an English diminuitive as a nickname for the enemy
suggests respect verging on affection - a fairly accurate description
of the feeling of a lot of British soldiers and officers.  (I suspect
Montogmery would have much rather sat down to dinner with Rommel than
with Patton. <g>)  "Hun" is an epithet.  "Jerry" is damned near a
compliment. =20

Regards,=20

Joe
                                                                               
                 
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