Tom Austin <taustin> wrote:

> I do remember way back in high school physics that we discussed the term
> jerry-rig.  Our teacher reasoned that 'jerry' was a racial slur and
> shouldn't be used.  So he suggested that 'billy-rig' was a better term -
> referring to West Virginia hill billys.  Since we were in Virginia, it
> was a better term than 'jerry-rig'

I think that your teacher may have been confusing jerry-rigged with jerry-built
which is a slur against a certain English Jerry. Jerry-rigged is from WW2 and
applied to Allied equipment repaired using German parts.
To be honest, I have heard one phrase used by American oilmen that was a racial


Stephen

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