APAD: Jerry built

Meaning:

    If something is `Jerry built' it is built in a makeshift and insubstantial manner.

 

Background:

   The phrases `jerry built'/'jerry building'/'jerry builder' have been around

   since at least 1869, when `jerry built' was defined in the Lonsdale Glossary:

 

     "Jerry-built, slightly, or unsubstantially built."

 

   By 1901, the term began to be used figuratively - a sure sign of acceptance

   into the general language; for example, The Daily Chronicle, in August that

   year printed this opinion:

 

     "In an age of jerry-built books it is refreshing to come across a volume

     that has taken forty years to compile."

 

   The derivation is unknown. What we do know is that the term has nothing to do

   with the UK slang term for German - Jerry/Gerry. This is of WWI origin and

   the citations above pre-date that.

 

- www.phrases.org.uk [edited]

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Engineers might frown upon Jerry-built products but quality takes investment and

risk and does not always maximize profit. Once a software module is coded and

tested, for example, there's little incentive for programmers to improve it in a

substantial way no matter how shoddy the beast proves to be. Starry-eyed college

grads who set out to practice the art of computer programming find themselves

spend their time reading legacy spaghetti code and hunting elusive bugs spotted

only in the wild.