Jerry Rigged Or Jury Rigged: Do You Know Which Is Correct?
Even native English speakers get tripped up by similar-sounding phrases. For instance, what’s the difference between “jerry rigged” and “jury rigged”? And have you heard ...
Read moreJerry Rigged Or Jury Rigged: Do You Know Which Is Correct?
Posted — UpdatedEven native English speakers get tripped up by similar-sounding phrases.
For instance, what’s the difference between “jerry rigged” and “jury rigged”? And have you heard the phrase “jerry built”?
Jerry rigging, however, is building something badly.
So go ahead and use jerry rigging. Just make sure you mean something that’s badly built, not something that’s temporary.
“Jury” in this usage has nothing to do with the type of 12-person jury you’ll find in a courtroom, and “rigging” doesn’t relate to fixing a case so that a jury votes a particular way.
“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,'” Merriam-Webster writes.
So you can use jerry built and jerry rigging without worrying that either word has racist connotations.
Have you been using jerry rigged or jury rigged correctly?
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