{{short description|Term for a makeshift repair}} {{distinguish|Jury tampering}} {{Use dmy dates|date=January 2022}}{{Use British English|date=January 2022}} {{Wiktionary|jury-rig}} [[File:Jurry rigged rudder.jpg|thumb|Model showing a method for jury-rigging a rudder]] In maritime transport and sailing, '''jury rigging''' or '''jury-rigging'''<ref name="Lexico">{{Cite web |url=https://www.lexico.com/definition/jury-rigged |title=jury-rigged |website=www.Lexico.com |publisher=Oxford English Dictionary |date=2022 |access-date=22 January 2022 |archive-date=23 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220123095751/https://www.lexico.com/definition/jury-rigged |url-status=dead}}</ref> involves making temporary makeshift running repairs with only the tools and materials on board. Use of the term originated from sail-powered boats and ships. Jury-rigging can be applied to any part of a ship; be it its super-structure (hull, decks), propulsion systems (mast, sails, rigging, engine, transmission, propeller), or controls (helm, rudder, centreboard, daggerboards, rigging).
Similarly, a '''jury mast''' is a replacement mast after a dismasting.<ref name=OEDjurymast>{{Cite book |title=The Oxford English Dictionary, Volume V, H-K |location=Oxford |publisher=Clarendon Press |date=1933 |page=637, corrected reprinting 1966}}</ref> If necessary, a yard would also be fashioned and stayed to allow a watercraft to resume making way.
==Etymology== The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' states that ''jury-mast'' is "Of unknown origin", adding "Apparently either a corruption of some earlier name, or a jocular appellation invented by sailors. For the suggestion that it may have been short for injury-mast, no supporting evidence has been found." It defines it as "''Nautical'': A temporary mast put up in place of one that has been broken or carried away." and the earliest citation given is from 1616, with the spelling ''lury mast''.<ref>{{Cite OED|jury-mast}}</ref>
The 1881 edition of ''Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable'' defines ''Jury Mast'' as "A corruption of ''joury mast'', i.e. a mast for the day, a temporary mast, being a spar used for the nonce when the mast has been carried away. (French, ''jour'', a day)",<ref>{{cite book |last1=Brewer |first1=Ebenezer Cobham |title=Dictionary of phrase and fable |date=1881 |publisher=J.B. Lippincott |page=468 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4AwxH-K4SVEC&q=jury+mast&pg=PA468 |language=en |chapter=Jury Mast}}</ref> but the 1970 Centenary Edition of the same work states that "the etymology of 'jury' here is a matter of surmise".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Brewer |first1=Ebenezer Cobham |editor1-last=Evans |editor1-first=Ivor H. |title=Brewer's dictionary of phrase and fable |date=1977 |publisher=Cassell |location=London |isbn=0304935700 |page=599 |edition=Centenary |chapter=Jury mast}}</ref> A further suggested derivation is from the old French ''ajurie'' (aid).<ref>{{cite web |first=Sven | last=Yargs | date=5 June 2017 |title=Did or didn't the "jury-" prefix (jury-rigged, jury-mast) derive from "injury?" |url=https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/391778/did-or-didnt-the-jury-prefix-jury-rigged-jury-mast-derive-from-injury |website=English Language & Usage Stack Exchange |access-date=19 August 2025 |language=en}}</ref>
==Rigging== [[File:Jury-mast-knot-variations.jpg|thumb|Three variations of the jury mast knot.]] A sail-powered boat may carry a limited amount of repair materials, from which some form of jury-rig can be fashioned. Additionally, anything salvageable, such as a spar or spinnaker pole, could be adapted to carry a makeshift sail.
Ships typically carried a selection of spare parts such as topmasts. However, due to their much larger size, at up to {{Convert|1|metre}} in diameter, the lower masts were too large to carry as spares. Example jury-rig configurations include: *A spare topmast *The main boom of a brig *Replacing the foremast with the mizzenmast (mentioned in William N. Brady's ''The Kedge Anchor, or Young Sailors' Assistant'', 1852) *The bowsprit set upright and tied to the stump of the original mast.
The jury mast knot may provide anchor points for securing makeshift stays and shrouds to support a jury mast, although there is differing evidence of the knot's actual historical use.<ref name=Hamel1>{{Cite web|last=Hamel|first=Charles|url=http://Charles.Hamel.free.fr/knots-and-cordages/Investigation.html|title=Investigations – nœud de capelage ''or'' jury rig knot|website=Charles.Hamel.free.fr|publisher=Charles Hamel|date=August 2006|orig-date=September 2005|access-date=26 January 2022}}</ref><ref name=Hamel2>{{Cite web|last=Hamel|first=Charles|url=http://Charles.Hamel.free.fr/knots-and-cordages/Jury_rig_investigation.html|title=Jury rig investigation – nœud de capelage jury rig mast knot is it only ornamental or utilitarian (with secondary evolution to ornamental)?|website=Charles.Hamel.free.fr|publisher=Charles Hamel|date=August 2006|orig-date=September 2005|access-date=26 January 2022}}</ref><ref name=Hamel3>{{Cite web|last=Hamel|first=Charles|title=Jury rig investigation 2 – nœud de capelage jury rig mast knot is it only ornamental or utilitarian (with secondary evolution to ornamental)?|url=http://Charles.Hamel.free.fr/knots-and-cordages/Jury-rig-follow-on.html|website=Charles.Hamel.free.fr|publisher=Charles Hamel|date=August 2006|orig-date=September 2005|access-date=26 January 2022}}</ref>
Jury-rigs are not limited to sail-powered boats. Any unpowered watercraft can carry jury sail. A rudder, tiller, or any other component can be jury-rigged by improvising a repair out of materials at hand.<ref name=Lexico/>
==<span class="anchor" id="Similar phrases"></span>Similar terms== <!--EDITORS: Please take a look at this article's talk page before removing potentially offensive slang terms from this list. Thanks.--> <!-- EDITORS: This should be moved to Wiktionary --> *'''Jerry-built''' things, which are things 'built unsubstantially of bad materials', has a separate unknown etymology. It is probably linked to earlier pejorative uses of the word ''jerry'', attested as early as 1721, and may have been influenced by ''jury-rigged''.<ref name="alt.usage.english">{{Cite web|last=Israel|first=Mark|date=29 September 1997|url=http://www.yaelf.com/aueFAQ/mifjrrybltjryrggd.shtml|title=jerry-built" / "jury-rigged|website=www.Yaelf.com|publisher=alt.usage.english Word Origins FAQ|access-date=28 February 2013|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130927182352/http://www.yaelf.com/aueFAQ/mifjrrybltjryrggd.shtml|archive-date=27 September 2013}}</ref><ref name="Morris">{{Cite book|author1=William Morris |author2=Mary Morris |date=1988|title=Morris Dictionary of Words and Phrase Origins, 2nd Edition|location=New York|publisher=HarperCollins|pages=321–322}}</ref><ref name="Wilton">{{Cite web|last=Wilton|first=Dave|title=jerry-built / jury rig|url=http://www.WordOrigins.org/index.php/site/comments/jerry_built_jury_rig/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160919083623/http://www.WordOrigins.org/index.php/site/comments/jerry_built_jury_rig/ |archive-date=2016-09-19 |website=www.WordOrigins.org|publisher=Word Origins.org|access-date=28 February 2013}}</ref> The blended terms '''jerry rigging''' and '''jerry-rigged''' are also common.<ref>{{cite web |title='Jury-rigged' vs. 'jerry-rigged' |date=2017 |work=Dictionary.com |url= https://www.dictionary.com/e/jury-rigged-vs-jerry-rigged/ |access-date=December 20, 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Jerry-rigged {{!}} adjective |publisher=Merriam-Webster |url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/jerry-rigged |access-date=2024-12-07}}</ref> *{{Anchor|Afro engineering|Nigger-rigging}}''Afro engineering'' (short for ''African engineering'')<ref name="Cassell's1">{{Cite book|last=Green|first=Jonathan|date=2005|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5GpLcC4a5fAC|title=Cassell's Dictionary of Slang|edition=2|location=London|publisher=Weidenfeld & Nicolson|isbn=978-0-304-36636-1|at=p. 10, African engineering|via=Google Books}}</ref> or ''nigger-rigging''<ref name="Cassell's2">{{Cite book|last=Green|first=Jonathan|date=2005|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5GpLcC4a5fAC|title=Cassell's Dictionary of Slang|edition=2|location=London|publisher=Weidenfeld & Nicolson|isbn=978-0-304-36636-1|at=p. 1003, nigger rig n.; nigger rig v.; nigger rigged|via=Google Books}}</ref> is a highly offensive term<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Rahman |first=Jacquelyn |date=2012 |title=The N Word: Its History and Use in the African American Community |journal=Journal of English Linguistics |language=en |volume=40 |issue=2 |pages=137–171 |doi=10.1177/0075424211414807 |s2cid=144164210 |issn=0075-4242}}</ref> for a fix that is temporary, done quickly, technically improperly, or without attention to or care for detail. It can also be shoddy, second-rate workmanship, with whatever available materials.<ref name="NPD">{{Cite book|last=Partridge|first=Eric|author-link=Eric Partridge|date=2006|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mAdUqLrKw4YC|title=The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English: J-Z|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=978-0-415-25938-5|at=p. 1370, nigger-rig|via=Google Books}}</ref> ''Nigger-rigging'' originated in the 1950s United States;<ref name="Cassell's1" /> the term was euphemized as ''afro engineering'' in the 1970s<ref name="Cassell's2" /><ref name="Routledge">{{Cite book|last=Jackson|first=Shirley A.|date=2015|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JBEWBAAAQBAJ|title=Routledge International Handbook of Race, Class, and Gender|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-0-415-63271-3|via=Google Books|at=Intersections of discourse: Racetalk and class talk|quote="'I can't even nigger-rig it.' ... 'The proper terminology is Afro-engineering.' Here, blackness is demarcated in a classed way. 'Nigger-rigging' is a quick, temporary fix to a problem, but it is a solution that is second rate to the 'right' way. ... declares that this type of knowledge is racialized and classed in a way that deems it inherently inferior. ... implies that black ingenuity and innovation as sub-par and second rate to white ingenuity and innovation. ... By responding indirectly ... consents to this classed usage of the word 'nigger'. Not only does this trivialize whether the slur's usage is inappropriate in the first place, but it equates 'nigger-rigging' with 'Afro-engineering'. ... denotes these terms as synonymous, thus imposing an even more classed meaning to this racial slur."}}</ref> and later again as ''ghetto rigging''. The terms have been used in the U.S. auto mechanic industry to describe quick makeshift repairs.<ref name="Auto Slang">{{Cite book|last1=Poteet|first1=Jim|last2=Poteet|first2=Lewis|date=1992|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=973n3OipN-4C|title=Car & Motorcycle Slang|publisher=toExcel an imprint of iUniverse.com Inc.|isbn=978-0-595-01080-6|at=p. 14, Afro engineering|via=Google Books}}</ref> These phrases have largely fallen out of common usage due to their highly offensive nature. * The American expression ''redneck technology'' similarly refers to crude forms of technology, often hastily or poorly finished, but broadly functional.<ref>See, e.g.: {{cite web |last=Kelly |first=Kevin |author-link=Kevin Kelly (editor) |title=Street Use: Redneck Technology |date=August 2, 2006 |work=KK.org |url= https://kk.org/streetuse/redneck-technology/ |access-date=December 20, 2023}}</ref> *To ''MacGyver'' (or ''MacGyverize'') something is to rig up something in a hurry using materials at hand, from the title character of the American television show of the same name, who specialized in such improvisation stunts.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Rich|first=John|date=2006|title=Warm Up the Snake: a Hollywood Memoir|location=Ann Arbor, MI|publisher=University of Michigan Press|isbn=9780472115785|pages=167|oclc=67240539}}</ref> *In New Zealand, having a ''Number 8 wire'' mentality means to have the ability to make or repair something using any materials at hand, such as standard farm fencing wire.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.Stuff.co.nz/business/farming/7358384/Time-to-break-free-of-No-8-wire-mentality|title=Time to 'break free' of No 8 wire mentality|website=www.Stuff.co.nz|date=26 July 2012 |location=New Zealand|publisher=Stuff}}</ref> *In British slang, ''bodge'' and ''bodging'' refer to doing a job serviceably but inelegantly using whatever tools and materials are at hand; the term derives from bodging, for expedient woodturning using unseasoned, green wood (especially branches recently removed from a nearby tree). *The chiefly English term ''do-it-yourself'' (''DIY'') relatedly refers to creating, repairing, or modifying things without professional or expert assistance. *Similar concepts in other languages include: {{lang|hi-Latn|jugaad}} in Hindi and {{lang|ur-Latn|jugaar}} in Urdu, {{lang|ja-Latn|urawaza}} ({{lang|ja|裏技}}) in Japanese, {{lang|lij|tapullo}} in Genoese dialect, {{lang|zh-Latn|tǔ fǎ}} ({{lang|zh|土法}}) in Chinese, {{lang|de|Trick 17}} in German, {{lang|pt|desenrascar}} in Portuguese and {{lang|pt-BR|gambiarra}} in Brazilian Portuguese, {{lang|ht|degaje}} in Haitian Creole, {{lang|fr|système D}} in French, {{lang|sw|jua kali}} in Swahili. Several equivalent terms in South Africa are {{lang|af|n boer maak 'n plan}} in Afrikaans, {{lang|zu|izenzele}} in Zulu, {{lang|st|iketsetse}} in Sotho, and {{lang|tn|itirele}} in Tswana.<ref>{{cite web |first=Angus Donald |last=Campbell |url= http://www.angusdonaldcampbell.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/006_DESI_a_00424_Campbell_WEB_vB.pdf |title=Lay Designers: Grassroots Innovation for Appropriate Change |publisher=Massachusetts Institute of Technology |date=2017 |via=AngusDonaldCampbell.com}}</ref>
==See also== * {{annotated link|Chindōgu}} * {{annotated link|Do it yourself}} * {{annotated link|Improvisation}} * {{annotated link|Jugaad}} * {{annotated link|Kludge}} * {{annotated link|Life hack}} * {{annotated link|Repurposing}}
==References== {{reflist}}
==Further reading== *{{cite book|last=Harland|first=John|date=1984|title=Seamanship in the Age of Sail|publisher=Naval Institute Press}}
==External links== *{{Commons category-inline|Jury rigging}}
{{Sail types}}
{{Authority control}} Category:Nautical terminology