What is the difference between jury rigged and jerry rigged

Jerry-built can first be found in a dictionary from That cross-pollination has been in use since the s and will likely continue. Samantha Enslen runs Dragonfly Editorial. You can find her at dragonflyeditorial. Image courtesy of Shutterstock. Sources Peacock, Robert Backhouse; J. Barrere, Albert, and Charles G. The word jerry-rigged may be a blend of jury-rigged and jerry-built , or it may be a variant pronunciation or spelling of jury-rigged. Jerry and jury do sound very close.

Jerry-rigged is found by the late 19th-century. Its definition is the same as jury-rigged. This disparaging term is real, a pun on the name Jerry and the pronunciation of the first part of German.

This insult, however, is found by , which is sometime after we first find evidence for jerry-built and jerry-rigged in the 19th century. So, who or what is jerry? I know this one! Who'd a thunk? Samantha Carter and Rodney McKay will assist with today's explanations. The site thefreedictionary. Merriam-Webster Online defines jerry-built thus: Built cheaply and unsubstantially; carelessly or hastily put together Origin unknown First Known Use: Fannish example 2: Rodney despised shoddy engineering at the best of times, but a jerry-built Genii atomic bomb filled him with horror as well as contempt.

Both words refer to something roughly put together and temporary, but they have quite different shades of meaning. Something that is jury-rigged works for the purpose.

Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! It is true that Gerry Jerry is a British term for German and I think the cans referred to were, literally, cans for fuel or water taken from German military vehicles.

Before jerry-built, there was jerry-sneak … a worthless man, also a hen-peckt man. Tho the term jerry-sneak was still found in the s in the US.

I thought jury-rigging was incorrect. I stand corrected. He said allied soldiers came across these jerry -rigged items in the field, especially after the turning points in the wars. Jury-rigged vs. Jerry-rigged By Maeve Maddox. Stop making those embarrassing mistakes!