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Amy Guskin wrote:
> Except that no dictionary I've found anywhere links
"jerry-rigged" (or mo=
re
> properly "jerry-built") to a derogatory term for Germans,
and in fact, the
> Oxford English Dictionary claims that "jerry" is an
_informal_ term for
> Germans (while it tags that other word specifically as
"offensive").  So,
> "jerry" isn't an offensive term for "German," and
the term doesn't refer =
to
> Germans anyway.  Again from Oxford, on "jerry-built":
"ORIGIN sometimes s=
aid
> to be from the name of a firm of builders in Liverpool, or to allude to t=
he
> walls of Jericho, which fell down at the sound of Joshua=D5s trumpets (Bo=
ok of
> Joshua, chapter 6)."
>

Your dictionary appears to have a very British bias. My stepfather
served during WWII and used to regularly attend the Eighth Air Force
Historical Society lunches in Willow Grove until his health forced him
to stop. I have heard WWII veterans use the term "Jerry" only with the
nastiest possible inflection, as a clear reference to the contempt they
felt towards their German enemies. They also referred to poorly done
jobs as "Jerry-rigged."=20

Bill
                               
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