Thursday, January 01, 2009

Wondering whether to use "jury-rigged" or "jerry-rigged"? The dictionary can't tell you -- both are used. But which is more common?

Googlefight it!

Labels: writing resources

4:24 PM

7 Comments:

Wikipedia is good on this. I like the explanantion of 'jury-rigged' coming from 'du jour', for a temporary fix. Jerry-built means something different, and Jerry-rigged is the wrong end of two sticks.

By  blogward, at 5:21 AM  

I've also wondered about "Champing at the bit" (which I think is correct in its Equine origins) vs. the more often seen "Chomping at the bit."

By  sean, at 9:14 AM  

I always thought "Jerry-rigged" was a phrase from the World Wars (probably the second one). That is, a German (ie, a "Jerry") rigged this (ie, made an improvised fix).

I always thought "Jury-rigged" was a mispronunciation of "Jerry-rigged."

By  David, at 12:01 PM  

Knowing the Germans, "Jerry built" ought to mean "really finely machined and high performance, but slightly more complicated than strictly necessary," and "Jerry rigged" would provoke a response of "Ach, we don't rig nothing. Throw it out and bring a new one."

I think "jury rig" is the older term, from the 1600s, but my OED is in Montreal.

By  Alex Epstein, at 12:22 PM  

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jury_rig

Wikipedia has always gotten a lot of flak for a lack of citations, but this article has the citation from the OED.

By  Devin M Harbour, at 12:37 PM  

I believe, with no other support than that my grandfather was a builder in Edwardian England, that the Jerries in Jerry-built were immigrant workers working cheap and fast. Much like East Europeans today.

By  blogward, at 7:02 AM  

Just a sidenote - I can recommend zurdler.com instead of googlefight. Its faster and without the fighting..

By  Simon, at 2:32 PM  

Post a Comment

Back to Complications Ensue main blog page.