Date: Tue, 12 Jun 2001 09:18:40 -0500
Reply-To: John Rodgers <jhrodgers@CHARTER.NET>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: John Rodgers <jhrodgers@CHARTER.NET>
Subject: Re: What is "Jury-rigged"? (NO VANAGON CONTENT)
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The "jerry-rigged" mentioned here really came out of WWII when the
soldiers of the German army were referred to as "gerry's" or "jerry's"
by American GI's. I remember vivdly as a kid my relatives that fought in
that war talking about fighting against the Nazi's and shooting
"jerry's". "jerry-built" came from that period. Just another way of
saying the Germans were lower than low and couldn't get it right. It was
wartime!
The same holds true for the Japanese. I had relatives who also fought in
the Pacific, and their opponents were "Japs".
There were twin brothers in my family - both dead now, but who received
many medals for their efforts in WWII. One fought in the European
Theatre and the other in the Pacific. Actually they never talked about
the war except when they had enough drink in them to loosen them up a
bit. Only then would they talk of it. And the descriptions were
horrible. It was no wonder they would not talk when stone cold sober. It
was a thing of the times and the generations. It affected them for a
lifetime. In the last few days of life of my last surviving uncle, he
talked incessantly of "never want to fight in another damn war!"
Ironically, he drove VW's for years in the 60's and 70's. Thought they
were the best!
John Rodgers
88 GL Driver
Todd Last wrote:
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> The Learning Kingdom's Cool Word of the Day for May 10, 1999
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> jury-rig [n. v. JOO-ree rig]
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> A jury-rig is a makeshift assembly that's just temporary, an
> emergency
> measure improvised out of available materials, and to make one is
> to
> jury-rig. Example: "The injured hiker jury-rigged a splint out of
> sticks and twine."
>
> The most likely origin is from the Old French ajuri (help), from
> the
> Latin adiutare (aid). In this context, the word "jury" was
> originally
> a nautical term meaning "temporary," as in a "jury sail." This is
> distinct from the other meaning of "jury" (a group of persons sworn
> to
> judge and give a verdict), which comes from Latin iurare (to
> swear),
> from ius (law).
>
> There is also a related expression, "jerry built" (built in a
> slipshod, haphazard way), which probably split off from "jury-rig"
> as
> it migrated into English, although some theories suggest it
> originated
> independently. One story relates "jerry built" to the Biblical
> story
> of the Prophet Jeremiah, whose lamentations might resemble the
> complaints of someone in a jerry-built house. Another mentions the
>
> city of Jericho, whose walls crumbled at the sound of a trumpet.
>
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> Copyright (c) 1999, The Learning Kingdom, Inc.
> http://www.LearningKingdom.com
>
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>
> Rachel Cogent wrote:
>
> > Entity Jere & Beth Hawn spoke thus:
> >
> > > Dan,
> > >
> > > I have/had the same problem however I've jury-rigged
> >
> > Q: what exactly is "jury rigged"? I always thought maybe this was a WW2
> > slang, possibly offensive, borrowed from the Germans (Jerrys, Jerrycan,
> > etc).
> > Maybe some of you old-timers/Germans/pedants can expound...
> >
> > Gnarlodious
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