This Jury is Rigged!

So, just like you, I was reading the Dictionary last night. I was in the J's...

Here's what happened earlier in the day...

I was talking to a teacher and I used the word "jury-rig". Only, I'm never sure if it's "jury" or "jerry". So I asked, "Is it Jury or Jerry?"

And the teacher says "Oh, I heard that was a slavery term, so I don't use it anymore."

And my brain went Wh-huh? I thought it just meant built with spare parts. And I said "Well, how about if I McGyver it?" He agreed that that was ok.

On our drive home, I was telling Lee about it, and he thought it was a sailing term.

Here's the scoop:

JURY-RIG according to wikipedia and dictionary.com and good old hard bound Merriam Webster is "to erect, construct, or arrange in a makeshift fashion" and also it's a sailing term from latin and old french. I googled it in connection with slavery, and there was only one page that associated the 2 words and that was somebody's BLOG, so you know you can't trust that.

JERRY-BUILT, for your edification is, according to wikipedia and Merriam Webster, "1 : built cheaply and unsubstantially 2 : carelessly or hastily put together"

Now you know. Go in peace and use these terms wisely.