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Feb 28, 2017
This week’s theme
Words having nautical origins

This week’s words
offing
jury-rig
slush fund
pinchgut
jettison

jury-rig
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A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg

jury-rig

PRONUNCIATION:
(JOOR-ee rig)

MEANING:
verb tr.: To assemble or fix temporarily using whatever is at hand.

ETYMOLOGY:
On a sailing ship, a jury-mast is a temporary mast, rigged when the original is damaged or lost. From jury (makeshift or temporary), perhaps from Old French ajurie (help). Earliest documented use: 1840.

USAGE:
“The city does not run power to Bushkoppies, so most residents jury-rig their homes with illegal connections from power lines. But the Segelbergs refuse to wire an illegal connection to their creche, both out of a concern for safety and to teach the children a respect for the law.”
Cecilia Johnson; Raising South Africa; Times Live (Johannesburg, South Africa); Jan 13, 2017.

See more usage examples of jury-rig in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
We have abundant reason to rejoice, that, in this land, the light of truth and reason has triumphed over the power of bigotry and superstition, and that every person may here worship God according to the dictates of his own heart. In this enlightened age, and in this land of equal liberty, it is our boast, that a man's religious tenets will not forfeit the protection of the laws, nor deprive him of the right of attaining and holding the highest offices that are known in the United States. -George Washington, 1st US president, general (1732-1799)

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