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From: msb@lsuc.UUCP (Mark Brader)
Newsgroups: net.nlang
Subject: Re: Re: what's a "pantoffel-computer"
Message-ID: <1026@lsuc.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 7-Jan-86 22:23:46 EST
Article-I.D.: lsuc.1026
Posted: Tue Jan  7 22:23:46 1986
Date-Received: Tue, 7-Jan-86 22:44:08 EST
References: <4300001@konech.UUCP> <483@mot.UUCP> <2407@flame.warwick.UUCP>
Reply-To: msb@lsuc.UUCP (Mark Brader)
Organization: Law Society of Upper Canada, Toronto
Lines: 17
Summary: Etymology of "jerry-built" and "jury-rigged" -- how certain?

> >There is a word "jerry-built" which is not too commonly heard any more,
> >but is used to describe shoddy, "chewing gun and baling wire" construction.
> >I believe the "jerry" is a corruption of latin "dies"="day", hence
> >something "jerry-built" (or, a variant "jury-rigged") is something
> >whose lifetime is on the order of magnitude of a day.
> 
> I believe "jury-rigged" and "jerry-built" have different origins;
> "jury" in this context from Old French "ajurie": aid ["aju": pres. stem of
> "aidier" + "rie"] ; thus a (temporary) solution.  I'm not so sure about
> "jerry" from "dies", though it looks plausible...

Random House Unabridged gives "jerry" as an old word for chamber pot,
and thus derived from "jeroboam".  OED gives it as unknown.  Both RHU
and OED give "jury-rigged" as unknown; OED mentions a conjectural
derivation from "injury-rigged" but says there's no evidence.

Mark Brader