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Jury rigging refers to makeshift repairs or temporary contrivances, made with only the tools and materials that happen to be on hand, originally a nautical term. On sailing ships, a jury rig is a replacement mast and yards (which hold the ship's rigging) improvised in case of damage or loss of the original mast.^[1]

Etymology

The phrase "jury rigged" has been in use since at least 1788.^[2] The adjectival use of "jury", in the sense of makeshift or temporary, has been said to date from at least 1616 when it supposedly appeared in John Smith's A Description of New England.^[2] However, the word "jury" does not appear in the digital form of this document, as edited by Paul Royster of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. ^[3] It appeared in Smith's more extensive The General History of Virginia, New-England, and the Summer Isles published in 1624.^[4]^[5]

There are several theories about the origin of this usage of "jury":

From the Latin adjutare ("to aid") via Old French ajurie ("help or relief").^[6]
A corruption of joury mast—i.e. a mast for the day, a temporary mast, being a spare used when the mast has been carried away. (From French jour, "a day".)^[7]
Contraction in the nautical tradition for injury ^{[citation needed]}

Rigging

Ships typically carried a number of spare parts (e.g., items such as topmasts), but the lower masts were too large to carry spares, at up to one meter in diameter. So a jury mast could be various things. Ships always carried a variety of spare sails, so rigging the jury mast once erected was mostly a matter of selecting appropriate size. Contemporary drawings and paintings show a wide variety of jury rigs, attesting to the creativity of sailors faced with the need to save their ships. Example jury-rig configurations are:

A spare topmast
The main boom of a brig
To replace the foremast with the mizzenmast: mentioned in W. Brady's The Kedge Anchor (1852)
The bowsprit set upright and tied to the stump of the original mast.

The jury mast knot is often mentioned as a method to provide the anchor points for securing makeshift stays and shrouds to the new mast. However, there is a lack of hard evidence regarding the knot's actual historical use.^[8]

Although ships were observed to perform reasonably well under jury rig, the rig was quite a bit weaker than the original, and the ship's first priority was normally to steer for the nearest friendly port and get replacement masts.

Similar phrases

The phrase "jerry-built" has a separate origin and implies shoddy workmanship not necessarily of a temporary nature.^[9]^[1]^[10]
Bricolage is building from what happens to be available.
To "MacGyver" something is to rig up something in a hurry using materials at hand, from the title character of the U.S. television show of the same name, who specialised in such improvisation stunts.
In New Zealand, having a "Number 8 wire mentality" means to have the ability to make or repair something using any materials at hand (such as standard farm fencing wire).^[11]

"Nigger-rig" is based on the racial slur "nigger".^[12] The term is considered offensive (no shit, asshole @whoever_wrote_this) and vulgar. The phrase "ghetto rigging" may have similar origin. It can also be referred to as "Afro-engineering".

References

^ ^a ^b Israel, Mark (29 September 1997). "jerry-built"/"jury-rigged". alt.usage.english Word Origins FAQ. Retrieved 28 February 2013.
^ ^a ^b The Oxford English Dictionary, Volume V, H-K (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1933; corrected reprinting 1966), 637.
^ Captain and Admiral John Smith, and Paul Royster, ed., A Description of New England (1616): An Online Electronic Text Edition, Electronic Texts in American Studies. Paper 4. (Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 1616;2013) University of Nebraska-Lincoln digital republication. ([1])
^ Captaine Iohn Smith, The Generall Historie of Virginia, New-England, and the Summer Isles (London: Michael Sparkes, 1624; 2006 UNC digital republication), 223. (Online edition.)
^ Note that in the orthography of Early Modern English 'I' was often used in place of 'J', thus the actual quote from Smith(1624) reads, "...we had re-accommodated a Iury-mast to returne for Plimoth..."
^ Robert K. Barnhart, ed., Barnhart dictionary of etymology, (New York: H. W. Wilson Company, 1988), 560.
^ E. Cobham Brewer 1810–1897. Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 1898.
^ Charles Hamel, "Investigations on the Jury Mast Knot" [2] [3] [4] Accessed 2007-02-22.
^ William and Mary Morris, Morris Dictionary of Words and Phrase Origins, 2nd Edition (New York: HarperCollins, 1988), 321-322.
^ Wilton, Dave. "jerry-built / jury rig". wordorigins.org. wordorigins.org. Retrieved 28 February 2013.
^ [5]
^ J.E. Lighter, ed. (1997). "nigger-rig". Random House Historical Dictionary of American Slang. Vol. 2 (H-O). New York: Random House. p. 664.

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 potentially offensive slang terms from this list.  Thanks.
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-* "Nigger-rig" is based on the racial slur "[[nigger]]".<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |editor=J.E. Lighter|encyclopedia=Random House Historical Dictionary of American Slang |title=nigger-rig |year=1997 |publisher=Random House |volume=2 (H-O) |location=New York |isbn= |pages=664}}</ref> The term is considered offensive and vulgar. The phrase "ghetto rigging" may have similar origin. It can also be referred to as "Afro-engineering".
+* "Nigger-rig" is based on the racial slur "[[nigger]]".<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |editor=J.E. Lighter|encyclopedia=Random House Historical Dictionary of American Slang |title=nigger-rig |year=1997 |publisher=Random House |volume=2 (H-O) |location=New York |isbn= |pages=664}}</ref> The term is considered offensive (no shit, asshole @whoever_wrote_this) and vulgar. The phrase "ghetto rigging" may have similar origin. It can also be referred to as "Afro-engineering".
 == See also ==

Revision as of 18:21, 26 June 2015

Etymology

Rigging

Similar phrases

See also

References

Further reading