Yesterday we asked, what does “jury” mean and where did the term originate?

A jury is a temporary or makeshift arrangement of any of a vessel’s gear due to damage, such as a jury rudder. There are a few possibilities to its origins; one an old French word, jornal, or jurnal, for the day, implyng temporary; another also old French, ajuirer, to help and this one goes back to Latin, adiutare, aid.

The phrase “jury rigged” has been in use since at least 1788. However, the adjectival use of “jury” in the sense of makeshift or temporary dates from at least 1616, when it appeared in A Description of New England. It appeared again, in a similar passage, in Smith’s more extensive The General History of Virginia, New-England, and the Summer Isles published in 1624.