Forked Thread: Re Term "jimmy rigged"

[rjwalker]

Forked from: Equalizer jimmy rigged?

I'm curious about the term "jimmy rigged." Is it intended to mean the same as "jury rigged," i.e. "makeshift repairs or temporary contrivances, made with only the tools and materials that happen to be on hand?" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jury_rig

Or does it have an additional connotation along the lines of "badly done jury- rigging?"

Is it regional, perhaps? (I'm in the north east US)

[Brad Weber]

I had to look it up myself. "Jury rigged" was apparently originally a sailing term referring to improvised rigging. It eventually came to refer to improvised or makeshift repairs in general. The derivative "jerry rigged" apparently came from WWII where as parts became scarce the Germans ("Jerry" being British slang for a German soldier) often made improvised repairs using scavenged parts. "Jimmy rigged" apparently refers to even more makeshift solutions or ones involving critical components, a jury rigged system might at least be expected to work while a jimmy rigged system would probably be expected to fail. I could not find whether it came from any specific location.

[cmchamp]

And besides "Jerry" there are other culturally and racially colored remarks that would be inappropriate for use in public or public forums.
I grew up with "jerry" and others, not being culturally or racially motivated, because of the backgrounds of the elders (dad, grandparents, great-grand parents and older relatives) I grew up and worked around.

[greg4god]

Interesting, I actually looked it when I saw that in the other thread. The one site mentioned a difference (forget which was which) between jury rigged and jimmy rigged, one was making do with what you have expecting it to work short term, the other was making do with what you have without having any expectation of it working at all.

-Greg

[Esoteric]

Yeah, I grew up with much more colorful language than any of the j-rigs. I tend to use jerry or jury. I had no idea there was any difference.

[cmchamp]

"Jerry" or "Gerry" came from the great wars.
"Jury" probably originated in Chicago