In honor of Jerry's birthday, I'm wondering where the term "jerry-rig" comes from. I see in the American Heritage Dictionary that it's a variant of "jury-rig" but I still dont' get it.
******* "Happiness is not something ready made. It comes from your own actions. ~Dalai Lama
Well this is interesting. The original term is jury-mast, a temporary or helping mast, and from that came other nautical uses including jury-rig, to rig up on a temporary basis.
Now the OED (or at least my SOED) just has "?" for the etymology. But Skeat's Etymological Dictionary (1882) has an explanation. So the OED seem to be rejecting the normally reliable Skeat (as I've noticed they do in a number of other cases).
For what it's worth, Skeat derives it from ajury-mast, Old French ajuirie 'aid' and related to aid, both from Latin ad-iuu-, where iuu- is the basic root for 'help'.
Phonetically, jerry-rig seems to be an alteration of jury-rig by association with the unrelated and modern (1800s) term jerry-builder, itself of unknown origin.
It is not the same process as with 'bury' being pronounced [beri], as that's deep in early Middle English: the Old English vowel [y] changed to [i] in the Midlands and North, and most of our words reflect that, but in Kent and some other parts of the South it became [e], and 'bury' happens to be a word that's inherited a Kentish pronunciation but a standard Midlands spelling.
That is fascinating, aput. In the online OED, it says this about jury-mast, where jury-rig is:
"App. either a corruption of some earlier name, or a jocular appellation invented by sailors. For the suggestion that it may have been short for injury-mast, no supporting evidence has been found."
Originally posted by Caterwauller: In honor of Jerry's birthday, I'm wondering where the term "jerry-rig" comes from. I see in the American Heritage Dictionary that it's a variant of "jury-rig" but I still dont' get it.
I've never heard of "jerry-rig", but we say "jerry-built" when talking about something that has been erected or assembled in a slapdash, careless and haphazard fashion.
They're not the same: jerry-building is incompetent, but jury-rigging is merely temporary, and is compatible with being skilful. Though they're close enough for the association to make sense, and change the sound.
I've also heard the term "nigger-rig", which means roughly the same thing, but is mind-bogglingly offensive. I haven't heard this term in quite a while, but I can't imagine hearing it too frequently to have a good sense of the exact sense. The etymology itself is probably racist, as one can imagine.
Another term meaning the same thing is MacGyver, coming from the tv show MacGyver, in which Richard Dean Anderson plays MacGyver, who solves absurdly complicated problems with very simple items. In my experience, it is more common than Jerry-rig. I thought it was funny that Richard Dean Anderson used the phrase in Stargate. Is there a word to describe a person who uses a word which is an eponym of that person? Somehow I don't think so.
Is there a word to describe a person who uses a word which is an eponym of that person?
The word I would use for that is either "arrogant" or "ironic".
Jerry-rig usually means to fashion something together out of found items, or to find a way to "make do" with what's at hand instead of fixing it correctly. "I'm going to just jerry-rig this door with duct tape until we can buy a new hinge."
******* "Happiness is not something ready made. It comes from your own actions. ~Dalai Lama
Yes, CW, that's how I use jerry-rigging, too. CW, have you (or other Americans here) heard of "jerry-built?" If not, I am wondering if this is another British/American difference.
