Wednesday's Random Slang-o-rama: Jerry-rigged

 Jerry-rigged: old phrase or new? And how did poor Jerry get tangled into a term that has come to mean cobbled-together?
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Well, according to this nifty post from Merriam-Webster, jerry-rigged, jerry-built, and jury-rigged have a common history. The oldest term, dating from the 18th century, would be jury-rigged, which has nothing to do with courtrooms but with boats:

Jury-rig comes from the adjective jury, meaning "improvised for temporary use especially in an emergency," or "makeshift." It's a 15th century term that comes from the Middle English jory, as known (back then, anyway) in the phrase "jory sail," meaning "improvised sail."

Rig has a similarly nautical background:

The rig in jury-rigged is a 15th century sailing term meaning "to fit out with rigging," with rigging being the lines and chains used in operating a sailing vessel. In the 18th century, if it was jury-rigged it was a boat.

 By the mid-19th century, jerry-built had popped up on the linguistic scene to mean "built cheaply and unsubstantially" as well as "carelessly or hastily put together." As for why jerry, Merriam-Webster adds:

The origin of this word is unknown, though there is plenty of speculation that it's from some poor slob named Jerry...

Jury-rigged and jerry-built morphed sometime in the late 19th century into jerry-rigged, meaning "organized or constructed in a crude or improvised manner."

The Online Etymological Dictionary doesn't address jerry-rigged, but does discuss jerry-built, with this fascinating detail on the wherewithal of jerry:

"built hastily of shoddy materials," 1856, in a Liverpool context, from jerry "bad, defective," probably a pejorative use of the male nickname Jerry (a popular form of Jeremy; compare Jerry-sneak "sneaking fellow, a hen-pecked husband" [OED], name of a character in Foote's "The Mayor of Garret," 1764).

Rube Goldberg "self-operating" napkin—jerry-rigged or jerry-built or...??? The jury is out.
Rube Goldberg [Public domain]