Meaning
Set up or repaired in an improvised, makeshift way from whatever materials happen to be at hand, typically to keep a boat, vehicle or machine working after damage or breakdown. From the old nautical adjective jury, improvised for temporary use in an emergency, best known from jury mast, a temporary mast stepped at sea after the original was carried away. Stresses ingenuity under pressure more than shoddy work, though the result is by nature temporary. Keep jury-rigged (improvised, temporary, resourceful) distinct from jerry-built (cheap and flimsy from the start): the two have separate origins, and jerry-rigged is a common blend often flagged in edited prose. The jury element is unrelated to the courtroom jury. Regional use: Originally British nautical; now general British and American English.
Origin
From the nautical jury mast, a temporary mast rigged at sea after the real mast was broken or carried away. The OED's factsheet dates jury-mast to 1592 (a letter by Captain T. Thompson), formed by compounding an uncertain element with mast - of unknown origin - verified directly; Wikipedia's summary of the OED's citation record instead gives 1616, spelled lury mast. Merriam-Webster traces the adjective jury, improvised for temporary use especially in an emergency, to Middle English jory in jory saile of the fifteenth century; Etymonline puts the adjective at the 1610s as a sailors' word of uncertain origin, perhaps from Old French ajurie, help or relief. The verb jury-rig dates from 1788 (Merriam-Webster). The OED dismisses the injury-mast theory for lack of evidence, and an 1881 Brewer's derivation from French jour, a mast for the day, was retracted in Brewer's own 1970 Centenary edition. Keep jury-rigged distinct from jerry-built (cheap and flimsy from the start, dated 1844 by Merriam-Webster); jerry-rigged is a later blend of the two.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- jury mast
- jury rigging
- jury-rig
Usage Examples
- With the pump broken, the crew jury-rigged a filter from a sock and a wire coat hanger.
- The shelter was a jury-rigged affair of tarps, rope and scavenged timber.
- Engineers jury-rigged a cooling system from car parts to keep the server room alive through the heat wave.