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
1. B
2. Neither
I’m from central PA.
1. Jerry-rigged. Though jury-rigged seems correct to me, too, when others use it.
2. I’ve never used these or heard anyone use them in person, but when I’ve encountered them, they’ve always been variations on jank. Jenk seems hard to pronounce to me. In fact, I can’t think of any other words with “enk” in them.
I’m from central Ohio, and spent a few years in Philly.
1. Jury-rigged (I always thought jerry-rigged was offensive, though I’m glad to hear that’s not the case here)
2. Never heard of this. I’ve spent linguistically meaningful amounts of time in North Carolina, Louisiana, all over New York (both up and downstate) and Arizona.
1. I use jury-rigged. I’m surprised to learn that jerry-rigged dates back as far as it does. I always thought “jerry-rigged” was a malaprop.
2. I’ve only encountered jank/janky on the internet. My term for this is “hoopty”.
I have about 20 years in Omaha, ten in the Ozarks, and a few in Kansas City.
1. I grew up hearing the not repeatable version from my grandmother and more like “that’s all… uh… we can’t say what we’d have called that when I was a kid” from other people. I’ve heard jerry-rigged since leaving Greater Cincinnati.
2. none of the above
The first term was applied to both the action and the result where I come from. I’m from Northern KY, lived in Lexington KY for awhile, now in Phoenix.
1. Jury-rigged.
2. I have never used either, although as I am currently bouncing around London, the British loooove ‘manky’, which makes me giggle, but my use of ‘wonky’ gets them going, so we all even out eventually.
Born and Raised North Central New Jersey, though the accent has definitive Queens marks from my mother’s side, and Jersey City from my grandfather. We had a serious discussion once on where we got ‘what a riot!’ from, but to no avail.
1. Jerry-rigged.
2. Never heard of either of those.
Alabama
From L.A. — I say jury-rigged, but the first dozen times I saw it written, it was jerry-rigged — so that I wondered if my family just pronounced it funny.
I never heard jank or janky as a child. We always said “slapdash” or (colorfully) “cachalop.” As an adult in the Northeast I hear janky once in a while, but no other form.
I’ve always spelled it jury-rigged but pronounced it jerry-rigged — is that weird? I guess that’s how I’ve always seen it written/heard it pronounced, so I just kind of concluded that the pronunciation morphed a long time ago.
1) Jury-rigged for anything nautical, jerry-rigged for anything on land. Have no idea why. :)
2) never used or heard those terms before.
Grew up North Central US.
1. “jerry-rigged,” but I don’t have a strong opinion on it vs. “jury-rigged.” Also, am I dumb for not understanding how Jerry-rigged could be un-PC, as another poster suggested?
2. “Janky.” I’m shocked at how many people have never heard of this. It’s always been common usage everywhere I’ve lived…I think. I’m also the one who got made fun of at my old office for shouting out “monkeys!” when something went wrong, so I really have no idea.
I was also going to say I use “Jacked” in place of “Janked,” but I agree with you Sars; they do have slightly different connotations.
My parents are Midwestern, but I grew up mainly in Virginia and live in New York now.
Definitely jerry-rigged in New Zealand – though actually we (I should say our fathers) tend to say jerry-built.
The Concise Oxford Dictionary (9th ed.) makes the distinction between jerry-built and jury-rigged. The latter being of nautical origin.
I always use to think that jerry-built was a derogatory term about the Germans – As in the jerries, or a jerrycan, but then I realised you wouldn’t actually mock German manufacture. The OED gives 19th century unknown origins.
Jury-rigged. Never heard of the others; I would also say something was cobbled together. Spent most of my life in Colorado.
1. I also grew up in Texas and heard the nasty, racist version of this. I always assumed that jury-rigged and jerry-rigged were euphemisms to cover this (which, I’m learning here, they are not), but it’s always made me uncomfortable and I avoid the phrasing altogether. I guess if a situation required it (say, a chair mended with duct tape) I would pull out some kind of “that shit is all MacGyver” phrasing.
2. After moving to Los Angeles three years ago, I don’t know how I ever lived without jank/janky/jankified. As my friends and I use it, it’s so nuanced and says what a lot of other words just don’t cover. I’m trying to work it out in my head, but I think we tend to use janky as the lesser version of jank. As in, “man, that Halloween costume was janky (and likely flammable).” But when something (more often a situation) is really really terrible, lame, crap, effed up, all things I hate, then I will likely say “Man, that Halloween party was so fuckin’ JANK! I couldn’t wait to get out of there.” There also is something of a superiority implication with the jank/janky – meaning that party was below my acceptable standards.
1. Jury-rigged. Who’s Jerry?
2. Janky, particularly with a nasal inflection on the aaaa-nk.
Northern California raised, but I’m not seeing a pattern. My whole family is from Georgia, but only the Grandparernt have the accent or seem to use regionals.
I’ve always used jerry-rigged, but would get worried whether it was correct or not, and couldn’t make SENSE out of jury or jerry enough to decide. (I often try to logically trace words to potential roots to help me decide what is right.)
Never used jank or jenk and don’t think I’ve ever even heard it.
I’m 30, spend the first 7 years of life in southern Ohio, the rest of life in CT, and was raised by parents from Wisconsin. My dialect flits around between those influences.
I say jury-rigged, but spell it jerry-rigged. This stems primarily from an misunderstanding when I was younger, but has carried on into adulthood.
Janky.
1. Neither, but jerry-rigged sounds “better” to me.
2. I use “jank”, although I always thought it was a word specific to my college’s theater dept. (My college is in Columbus, and I moved from Cleveland, if that makes a difference.)
1) Definitely jury-rigged. Jerry-rigged seems somehow wrong to me, though I’m sure it’s perfectly acceptable.
2) Before today, I had never seen either one of these terms – and I read a LOT. I’ve also never heard anyone use either of these terms, either.
I was born and raised in Baltimore, but have been very gradually creeping southward as an adult. I currently reside in Virginia.
1) Jerry-rigged feels more natural to me, although I don’t think I would ever say or have ever said it.
2) Never heard either expression until today.
I grew up in northeast TN.
1) jerry-rigged
2) janky (but the pronounciation is somewhere between janky and jenky)
Grew up in Michigan. Now live in Texas. Have spent 4 years each in Minnesota and NYC.
I had no idea “janky” wasn’t a universal term. Interesting that so many people haven’t heard of it.
1. Jerry-rigged
2. Janky
Whole life in and around Nebraska.
Jury-rigged, Janky.
Don’t use either one in everyday speech, but I’ve seen the above in print more than any other.
1.) Jerry-rigged, but my husband says jury-rigged (and is a master at it)
2.) Janky.
From eastern CT originally (he’s from the shoreline).
1) Jury-rigged, and I’m so glad this wasn’t another of those, “it’s not ‘jury-rigged, it’s jerry-rigged'” articles! But I love Camelama’s distinction between nautical and terrestrial usage. I learned it from jury-rigging sailboats that were always on the verge of falling apart.
2) With the what now?
Born, raised, and currently living in Seattle, with detours to the southeast (Virginia and Florida) for about 2 years, and 2 years in Portland, OR…which might as well be Seattle, linguistically speaking.
1) My family (seven generations of Texas stock) says jerry-rigged, though the more racist folks in the clan are prone to use [the n-word]-rigged. I try to put that one out of my mind, though.
2) I haven’t heard jenky or janky. We always used wonky, but that may have a slightly different meaning.
1) jerry-rigged, I think. The more I think, the more I doubt what I actually say.
2) neither. Never heard of ’em. In my house we use “Looks like Dad made it.” or “ghetto”, such as his fix of the refrigerator door shelf with a bungee cord and a piece of license plate. Or his fix of the lawn-mower with another piece of license plate. Or his sawing through the front panel of my CPU to install a 3.5″ floppy drive I have _never_ used. I have heard “jacked up” since moving to Philly.
I was born in the midwest to a midwestern mother and New England father, lived 4 years in Pittsburgh, 9 years in Upstate New York (near Montreal) , 4 years in SE Minnesota, 3 years in Boston, back to Pittsburgh, and finally, 4.5 years in Philly and holding strong. Most of my dialect influences are Eastern, but untraceable to a specific location.
1) jerry-rigged.
2)hastily-built!
From Missouri, next to Kansas.
1) Jerry-rigged
2) Janky, but as someone said, wandering into jenky territory as well.
Also, unrelatedly, my brother’s friends say ganked to mean snatched or stolen
SF Bay Area 3 generations on both sides. WOOT!
1) I say jerry-rigged
2) I don’t use it but a friend of mine says janky
I’m from Anaheim and my friend is from Cerritos, CA
A). I grew up in Kentucky, and now live in West Virginia. I use “jerry-rigged” but more often then not I heard the racist version that other people have mentioned. I haven’t heard it for years, though, so maybe it’s dying out.
B). Never heard of any of those. I’m not really sure what I do say, since it seems to be a situational thing. Maybe “shoddy” or “wonky”.
I just wanted to add that I just read liz’z comment and totally related. When I was young I also assumed that “jerry-rigged” was the “edited” version as well, which explains why I still feel squicky when I say it (even though I know otherwise). I just never really made the connection until now for some reason – probably because I don’t use the phrase too terribly much because of that.
1) Jerry-rigged. As a couple of folks above have said, I never thought of it as having a particularly bad connotation. I think of it as more like “MacGyvered” before any of us had ever heard of Richard Dean Anderson.
Plus jury-rigged looks funny to me because it reminds me more of rigging a jury in a trial than doing anything mechanical or crafty.
2) I’ve never heard any of those terms.
I’m from Virginia — the western part, which does make a difference when it comes to slang since we’re just at the edge of “Appalachia.” My parents are from Kentucky and Texas. I would probably have learned “jerry-rigged” from my Texan father and or my grandfather who grew up all over the western part of the US.
I now live in Seattle.
1) jury-rigged
2) jenky
(Raised in the DC area)
1. I say neither, but if I did, I’d go with “jerry-rigged.”
2. “Janky” only. Never “jank” or “janked,” and never with the E.
I’ve lived in Los Angeles my whole life. And let’s throw a time element in there, too — I’m 22 years old and had never heard of “janky” until I got to college in 2002, when a Central Valley (Fresno-area) kid filled me in.
J words are the greatest. I’m just waiting for “janky” to make it into the Scrabble dictionary. Then I’ll be set for life.
Jerry-rigged
Never heard of jank/jenk.
I’m Texan born to Oklahoman parents, one of whom has roots in Michigan, but my early education (younger than 2 through 3rd grade, so most of when I was learning language) was in Maryland. So I get southern, mid-Atlantic, and Midwest all mixed up into one!
Thank God for Tomato Nation and its army of readers.
I’ve had the word “jank” floating around in my head for a couple days without knowing A) where I got it or B) what it meant. I come to TN and get schooled on both. It’s such a relief.
Incidentally, anyone else get words instead of songs stuck in their heads? I had a brief dark period where the “word” “Hoobastank” kept interrupting my internal monologue. Worst. Earworm. Ever.
1. I consider both of them to be correct, but I’ve never heard them in real life – only movies and TV. I’ve never said either one aloud, but if I did, I’d go with “jury-rigged.”
2. Never heard of ’em. I’m more likely to say “jacked up” or “wonky.” But I’ll also use “jacked” in the same sense as “pumped,” “insanely energetic,” or “on steroids.” As in, “Man, this crowd is jacked for the football game,” or something like that. So, uh… I dunno.
Checking in from an Atlanta suburb, with parents from Georgia and Alabama.
1. “Jury-rigged”, definitely. I remember being formally taught at some point that “jerry-rigged” was wrong.
2. Never heard of jank* in any variation. Do use “jacked” but not in the sense of something being awkwardly thrown together.
Originally from Texas (18 yrs) with 5+ years in Boston, SF, and most recently 2 years in NYC.
1. I say jerry-rigged all the time, like probably once or twice a week. I’ve never said jury-rigged; I always thought people who said jury-rigged were just pronouncing it funny. I’ve never heard of [the n-word]-rigged, but that’s appalling and I don’t want to be thinking of that now when I say jerry-rigged. Crap.
2. Never heard of this janky/jenky word or any variations thereof.
Born and raised in New York City (Queens), went to school in New England, then lived in Virginia since college graduation.
1. Jerry-rigged, but the pronunciation can slide toward “jury” so sometimes it’s hard to tell.
2. Jank, though more often it’s janky or janked up.
San Francisco Bay Area born and raised.
1. Pronouced “Jerry-rigged,” spelled “jury-rigged.”
2. Never heard it said or seen it it written, either way.
I’m in Long Island, NY
Jury-rigged and janky… however, among the people around here, I think the jank/jenk split is pretty even.
Grew up in southeast Michigan, now living in northwest Ohio.
Jerry-rigged, definitely, or at least that’s what I’m familiar with.
Janky, although it was a word I hadn’t encountered until the last year. In Michigan, we would probably use “ghetto” instead of “janky”.
I spent 22 years in the metro Detroit area, and the last three in Boulder, CO, for statistical purposes.
For those of you former English majors or those with a love of linguistics, visit popvssoda.com for a discussion of the whole pop vs. soda vs. Coke debate (which is the acceptable generic term for soft drinks.)
Jury-rigged, and never heard of.
Military brat who spent most of her life in Europe or Arizona. Currently in northern VA.
Grew up in Oregon, spent a year in Massachusetts, now in Colorado (also spent a fair amount of time growing up in CA and Wisconsin).
1) Jury-rigged.
2) Never heard this used by anyone, and I’ve had classmates and coworkers from all over the U.S. Depending on context, people I know would probably say “tacky” or possibly “ghetto.” Or “jacked up,” but that implies more something that’s messed up than something that was crap to start with.
1. jerry-rigged
2. Never heard of it, which is weird since I grew up in Philly. I usually say cheap/chintzy/crappy.
1. Jerry-rigged.
2. Never heard of either of ’em.
We say “jimmy-rigged,” actually, and instead of the second group, in my family we say “rinky-dink” or “mickey mouse.” I’m from Miami, Fl, but my dad is from Cuba and my mother is from NY.
I was born and raised in South Dakota. Despite a few sojourns into the outside world, my speech flavor remains pretty much newscaster-bland.
1) If I’m trying to speak correctly I say jury-rigged, but it comes out jerry-rigged when I’m not thinking about it, since that’s the construction I learned as a kid.
2) I’ve never heard of either variation until today. I don’t think my lexicon includes a single word encompassing precisely that meaning.