Simpering ignorant idiots

The University of Washington IT Department, displaying emotional commitment to equity to a great degree than to common sense, has just published an Inclusive Language Guide.  What profoundly juvenile and utterly unserious people.  Casting an eye on the oh-so-many ways people can torture language to be emotionally threatening or demeaning, I came across jerry-rigged.

jerry-rigged designed, poorly designed, biased, skewed, predisposed.

Definition:  “Jerry-rigged” means organized or constructed in a crude or improvised manner.

Why it’s problematic: "Jerry” is a derogatory term used by soldiers and civilians of the Allied nations for Germans in WW2.

They want to protect the feelings of our enemies of eighty years ago?  That's a top concern for the University of Washington IT Department?  

Aside from that tender revelation, what most struck me was the term itself.  I have heard both jury-rigged and jerry-rigged but thought jury-rigged the more common.   Jury-rigged is definitely nautical in origin.  Source.

ju·ry-rigged

/ˈjo͝orēˌriɡd/

adjective

(of a ship) having temporary makeshift rigging.

NORTH AMERICAN

makeshift; improvised.

"jury-rigged classrooms in gymnasiums"

I read a great deal of maritime history and was an enthusiastic (though very novice) sailor in my youth.  I have always been familiar with jury-rigged and had always assumed that similar terms such as jerry-rigged or jerry-built were mere accidental derivations.  I never considered the WWII slang Jerry for German was a part of the development of the word.

And was it?  My first excursion is to N-Gram viewer to provide at least some historical guidance.  Jury-rigged was the only term in circulation up until 1829.   In 1829, for the first time and only for a few years (till 1836), jerry-built shows up.  Jerry-built resurrects again in 1853.  It putters along at a very low level until it takes off around 1880 and is the dominant term until 1999 when jury-rigged returns to the number one spot up until the present.

The key point is that jerry-built first occurred in usage ninety years before WWI much less WWII.  Jerry-built had no association with slang for Germans.  

Similarly for jerry-rigged which pops into view circa 1890 but lies latent with only occasional appearances through 1942.  Growth in the term comes from 1943 onwards before peaking in 2014.  

As of 2022, the most used term is the old nautical version (originating in 1806), jury-rigged which is used some 20% more than jerry-built  (originating in 1830).  And jerry-built is used in turn some 30% more often than jerry-rigged (originating in 1898).  

There is no doubt that jerry-rigged came into wider usage because jerry was a slang term during the war for Germans but it originated long before World War II.

Googling for the origin of Jerry as slang for German, it seems well-settled that it came in to use at least during the Second World War.  There seems debate as to whether it might have emerged at the end of World War I.  

Jerry as a slang term for German was definitely used by WWII and possibly by the end of WWI but the terms jury-rigged, jerry-rigged, and jerry-built all originated long before the use of Jerry as slang for German.

Here is a good essay from some etymologists on the origins of the three terms.  

We are left with the following sequence of conclusions.

University of Washington IT Department thinks that there is a strong need prevent their employees from being so linguistically callous.  

University of Washington IT Department thinks that people are insulted by a slang term (Jerry) for German, a usage which fell into decline after the war.

University of Washington IT Department thinks, incorrectly, that the slang term for Germans is related to the terms jury-rigged, jerry-built and jerry-rigged (which they are not).  

University of Washington IT Department recommends that people change the way they communicate based on this false premise and on the false premise that anyone takes any of the three terms as an ethnic slight.

Based on this research, it appears that the University of Washington IT Department are simpering ignorant idiots.