Something more to say?

Any fears volunteers may have harboured that today would be “a dull day” proved to be unfounded.  How could any day be dull in the company of Green Gymmers? 

Even the weather forgot it was supposed to be overcast all morning:

It was not with reference to the building in whose shadow we were working today …

that conversation at one point returned to the topic of the origin of the term ‘jerry-built’.  Extensive research (ie C looked up a couple of internet sites) had revealed that it definitely has nothing to do with war-time slang for Germans.  Sorry to disappoint, guys: 

it was a cute theory.

Where ‘jerry-built’ did come from, is harder to establish.  We can date it and place it, in the sense that there is evidence it is a British-English turn of phrase, and first turns up in print in 1869, referring to poor-quality building work.  There are at least three theories entertained by professional etymologists about the term:

1. It comes from the name of a particular firm of builders in Liverpool
2. It is a reference to the walls of Jericho, which fell down thanks to the combined efforts of the bandsmen and the chaplains’ department in the Old Testament Israelite army (Joshua 6:1-20)
3. It is derived from nautical terminology, where ‘jury’ means ‘improvised/temporary’ – the specific term ‘jury-mast’ dates at least as far back as the 17th century.  No connection with the Latin root jurare (‘to swear’), which yields another word I did not know until Green-Gym conversation this morning, ‘jurat’ (as in the system for law & order in Jersey)

Our own volunteers naturally are expert amateur etymologists.  (We do love our ’ologies at Green Gym.)  A couple more things which could be said on the subject:

• If it originated around the port of Liverpool, the phrase might have been the product of a combination of those factors: a 19th-century scouse joke, which we moderns don’t quite get because we don’t pick up the allusions?
• Any connection – at least in later usage – with the word ‘gerrymandering’?

Back to constructing the record of Green Gym’s work this morning: it came largely under the heading of Summer Tidy.  Excess vegetation was trimmed, mostly with billhook (as above) or with shears and loppers:

There was also a certain amount of imagination and improvisation in the use of tools.  As one volunteer cheerfully explained: “Green Gym and orthodox don’t really go together.”

Cut stuff could then be collected up and transferred to bags for disposal by another site-volunteer later:

Naturally there was also time for more conversation.  In this case, earnest discussion of whether the winch, which is being restored at another site, could indeed have handled a weight of 30 tonnes:

Conclusion was yes: the weight was only being pulled, horizontally, along rails.

And once more, by session end, you could certainly tell the difference:

Before

After