J Words
Submitted by Sarah D. Bunting on December 5, 2007 – 10:03 AM182 Comments
1. Something that is built haphazardly/slapped together/makeshift is:
a) jury-rigged; b) jerry-rigged
Both appear in the 11c; “jury-rigged” is the older construction. Which do you use?
2. Something that is built hastily/built poorly/looks cheap is:
a) jank/janky/janked; b) jenk/jenky/jenked
Neither appears in the 11C. Which of these do you use?
Just curious about the usage pattern on these; feel free to post your location/your hometown in the comments, in case it’s trackable. I usually say “jury-rigged” (or “jerry-built”), but if my father said “jerry-rigged,” it would sound more like “jury-rigged” because he’s got that Philly flavor. And I usually say “jank,” but if I add the Y, I say “jenky” instead.
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Tags: Ask The Readers grammar
I’m from Chicagoland and I say jury-rigged, and janky. Or, when I’m feeling very punchy, jankified.
I saw jury-rigged the other day and got thinking about this… I have never seen the expression before. I always said “jerry-rigged”. I am from New Zealand with an British-by-origin family.
1) jerry-rigged
2) I’ve never heard either of these before so no help here
I’m from a suburb of Detroit, Michigan.
I say “jerry-rigged” and “jenky”
18 years in MD, followed by 7 in central Jersey, and then 2 in Texas.
I say jerry-rigged. Never heard of jank/jenk etc until right now!
A hastily-built solution is jury-rigged to me. I wouldn’t say that it looks janky or jenky; while the meaning of the word is clear to me, I’ve never heard anyone use it in person, so I’ve never picked up using it myself.
I grew up in Denver, but my parents and extended family are all from Minnesota and I went to grad school in Wisconsin, so an awful lot of my colloquial language reflects the upper midwest more than it does Colorado.
(a) Jerry-rigged. Although I always thought it was a little un-PC. I’d never heard it as jury-rigged, though as a lawyer, I suppose it makes sense and I might just have to adopt it.
(b) Never used those either.
I’m originally from Idaho.
a) jury-rigged
b) None of the above!
I spent the first 18 years of my life in northwestern Michigan, 4 in Roanoke, VA, and now am in Florida.
1. Jerry-rigged
2. I’ve never heard your terms, we just use “it looks like crap”
I’m originally from the Town of Ballston, NY, now live halfway between Philly and Allentown.
I should have made this clearer in my initial post — that’ll teach me to write these up before coffee — but “jury-rigged” doesn’t necessarily imply “jank,” just that whatever it is was cobbled together in a hurry. You can jury-rig, say, a lighting scheme for a play and have it look fine; conversely, a vintage costume you spent a couple hundred bucks on can still look jank.
So, jury-rigging is in the execution; jenkiness is in the result. If that makes any sense.
@Corina, I thought of that too, because it was near the entry for “Jerry” in the dictionary, but the “jerry-rigged” coinage is dated 1959, which IMO puts it too late to have come from that (it would have popped up in the early ’40s, were that the case).
Jury-rigged and Jenky
I grew up on army bases aroung the world with parents from the midwest and upstate New York.
Currently in Des Moines, IA
1. jerry-rigged
2. neither–I use jacked or jacked up
I’m from Stamford, CT, with some time spent in West Philly and Ithaca, NY.
I don’t think I’ve ever really said either jury- or jerry-rigged. I prefer the much more expressive “crapped together”.
There’s an explanation of “jury-rigged”, “jerry-built” and their bastard lovechild “jerry-rigged” here: http://www.wordcourt.com/archives.php?show=2004-03-10.
Also at the Word Detective (http://www.word-detective.com/back-g2.html#juryrig). PS — I am kinda in geek-love with him. He’s brilliant. And funny. And so very, very wordy.
I’m from Boston and I say jury-rigged and janky.
1) I use jury-rigged
2) Never heard/used the others.
Grew up Jersey, College Maryland, live in Boston.
(Am now contemplating a native Bostonian saying jerry-rigged, much to my delight.)
Jury-rigged. I’m from Brooklyn. My grandmother, who comes from Irish people but was herself born in New York says Jerry-rigged. I say Gerry-mandering, but that’s completely different.
And I’ve never heard the term “jank” or any of the variations thereof.
I definitely say jury-rigged, though I recognize jerry-rigged as legitimate. I guess I always thought it was pronunciation thing not a different root word issue.
I have never heard of jankey/jenk/janked etc. That to me would be a cob-job, a ghetto fix or the like. I was unaware of a succinct adjective that described the aesthetic state of duct-taped wonder that are many of my father’s fixes.
@Amy: alt.English.usage has a similar explanation: http://www.yaelf.com/aueFAQ/mifjrrybltjryrggd.shtml
It seems to me that if we look at the historical origins of the terms, “jury-rigged” is correct and “jerry-rigged” is a malapropism that found it’s way into common usage.
I’ve used jerry-rigged, but never janked/jenked. And according to Random House Unabridged dictionary, there’s an entry for “jerry” that comes from the term “jerry-built”, which was an old tradesmans term (c. 1850)
@Emily – I’m with you on the jacked/jacked up. But I’ve met from outside the NY/New England area who have never heard of it. “Thats jacked.” “Who’s Jack?”.
I grew up in upstate NY, school in CT, now living in Brooklyn.
Jury-rigged, and I’d never heard the words “jank” or “jenk” until today either. Like Emily, though, I might say “jacked up”. (Well, I don’t personally, but it seems to be common here at least. I’d probably just go with “crappy” or some variation on it, or “messed up”, or “a mess”.) I live in Indiana.
1. jerry-rigged
2. Of these, I only use “janky.” I use different words entirely when going for the noun or the participle. Now I really hope something like “janked” is a participle, or I’m going to feel like a heel.
I’m from Las Vegas, NV, but my mother’s family is from Eastern PA and I use quite a few Yinzer words and constructions (like the “needs done” thing that everyone seems to hate!).
I use jerry-rigged, and have never heard of jank / jenk before today.
I’m from CT, near Hartford, and live near Boston now.
Jerry-rigged and janky.
Northern Minnesota for the first 18 years until I could escape to the Twin Cities.
I say jerryrigged, though I have definitely heard juryrigged; this is not a word I use that often. Jank is a totally new word to me, and now that I’m thinking about it, I’m not sure I actually have a single word for that concept. I grew up about an hour west of Boston.
1. Jerry-rigged
2. I’ve never used any of those variations. I usually use “chintzy” or “shoddy.”
Basically, I keep moving back and forth between PA and DE.
I say jerry-rigged (somehow always associated in my mind with gerrymandering though I realize the latter took its name from a political figure – I probably connected it because the result of gerrymandering are some rather messed up looking districts) but I’ve never heard janked/jenked. I would say “jacked” or “jacked up” for the second one.
I grew up with midwestern parents in southern California, school in LA and South Carolina, now living in North Carolina.
I say jury-rigged; never heard of the ‘jerry-‘ formation–or if I heard it, I didn’t realize it was being spelled differently.
I first heard ‘janky’ from a friend of mine about two years ago, and it’s been a favorite desciptive term ever since–definitely the ‘a’ spelling. Friend and I are both from southern MI, she by way of Delaware and the upper peninsula.
I’m from the South Shore of Massachusetts and I say jury-rigged and, on the exceedingly rare occasions I use it, janky. Jenky sounds too much like “Jinkies!”
1) I was born and raised in Memphis, TN and say “jerry-rigged.” I didn’t hear “jury-rigged” until I lived in FL and now in CO.
2) I’ve never heard/read/said the other words.
1. jerry-rigged and 2. none of the above … I have also never heard any variant of that word! Interesting.
(Grew up in Vermont.)
(1) jerry-rigged
(2) jack/jacked comes closest (but never “jacky”) — never heard of the others
Central North Carolina by way of SE Virginia
I use jury-rigged and janky, although I’ve heard jerry-rigged too, but not as frequently. We used jury-rigged on a daily basis while sailing, so…
Native Chicagoan with years spent on the East Coast to further muddle the colloquialisms.
Ringing in from Beantown…
1) Jerry-rigged
2) Never heard of any of ’em!
I say “jerry-rigged” and “janky” (learned “janky” from a former co-worker; virtually never hear it).
9 years in Missouri, 9 in Oklahoma, 5 in Santa Fe, 10 in Texas, now into my 2nd year in Georgia. My locations have little to do with my word choices, though; I’m a sponge for idioms from any region.
Jury-rigged. Jerry-rigged I’ve never heard of and in my dialect, it would be wrong.
As for question two… I’ve never heard any of those.
(I’m Australian.)
I think of “jacked up” as sliiiightly different in meaning; if it’s jacked, or dicked, it may once have been okay/a thing of some quality, but now is not. “Jank” doesn’t preclude that, but there’s a connotation of cheapness or shoddiness (similar to “busted”/”broke”). For example, a store-bought Halloween costume: that shit is (usually) jank. Cheap materials, doesn’t fit right…jank. But it’s not jacked up until you rip it or spill on it or something. So I guess “jacked/dicked (up)” implies, to me, a change in state, where “jank” does not.
Speaking of words that end in “-nk” — “hinky” is one of my favorites, and I heard someone use it as a verb last night. “It hinked me out.” I’m stealing that.
I always thought it was jerry-rigged. And I’ve also never heard of or used those other jenky/janky words before. I’d probably just say it looks like s**t. I’ve lived in Pennsylvania, Illinois, Florida, Maryland, Michigan, and Texas — but mostly Texas.
I’m in austin tx and I’ve always said something along the lines of “jerry rigged”. Never heard of “janked”, and my family is all of illinois origin….so maybe no one is from far enough north? Unless “ganked” is “janked” hiding among the g section of the urban dictionary?
I hope I don’t make too much more discussion….how about “catty corner” vs. “kitty corner”???
I grew up in Atlanta and now live in Virginia, but I say “jerry-rigged” just because it reminds me of gerrymandering, the one thing I remember from 10th grade AP Government.
Janky, because “jenky” just doesn’t roll of the tongue as well.
1. Jerry-rigged – had a friend in high school/college that liked to build things, including Rube Goldberg-esque machines, who was named “Jerry.” Hence, jerry-rigged.
2. Never heard of these.
Like hinky or wonky.
Born/raised in Los Angeles (3rd gen) moved to East Bay, CA about 7 yrs ago, now near Lake Tahoe, CA.
I would probably say “jerry-rigged” and I’m not familiar with that other word in any of its permutations.
(1) “jerry-rigged”
(2) I don’t really say either of those regularly, but when I do, it’s variations on “jank”
Born in Indiana, lived in Ohio most of my life (for about 17 years), now living in Wisconsin (for three years)
Jury-rigged and janky. I’m from the SF Bay Area, but didn’t start saying janky until I went to a central-coast California school with a lot of folks from San Diego and LA.
I live in North Texas, but I was raised by Northerners. I say “jerry-rigged”, and I’ve never heard of jank/janky/janked or jenk/jenky/jenked. My husband’s family is very deep South, and his older (racist) relatives say something else for “jerry/jury-rigged”, but he usually says “jury-rigged” himself.
1) “Jury-rigged”. Jerry-rigged is wrong, wrong I tell you!
2) Never heard of this before. If I had to describe something like that, I would probably have come up with “slapdash”, “shoddy”, or just plain “crappy”.
Grew up in New Orleans, lived in TX, L.A., and now NYC.
1) jury-rigged
2) janky
Though honestly, I’m not likely to use either in conversation–I usually use “kludged” for the first and “crap” for the second. I’m from Atlanta and live there now, with a 9-year detour into New England and a couple other places in the middle.
Western Canadian checking in here (although I grew up out East).
I “say” Jury-rigged, but I spell it “Jerry-rigged”. It’s one of those “aboot” things.
I’ve never heard of jank or jenk, must be an east coast USian thing. I’d use “crap” in that context, as in “If it’s not Scottish, it’s …”
jerry rigged? I always thought it was gerry-rigged, like gerrymandering a school/voting district’s borders.
I have never heard “jank” or “jenk”…. we just say “junk”.
I live in the Albany, NY area, am from here, but have lived for extended periods in NC and IL…. I’m from everywhere.
1. (never use, and rarely hear)
2. Never heard “janky” until “Tori and Dean: Inn Love”, and assumed it was LA slang. So based on Tori, I would pronounce them as “jank” and “janky”. I’m most likely to say something is shitty.
Syracuse, NY with NYC mixed in
1) I say “jury-rigged,” myself, but I’m a Philly girl (with Jersey parents). You might also catch me talking about eating blueburries.
2) I don’t think I’ve ever used them, but the only one I recall hearing is “jank(ed)”.