Not a major point in life, but I have to admit, when someone says "taters" I cringe just a bit.
Canadian chicken chain we have here called Mary Brown's(pretty good chicken too) has 'taters on the menu. They always ask "fries or 'taters"" and I usually answer back potatoes. One time I said 'taters, and I swear I could barely utter the word, and then I felt like a damn retard. More than usual, I mean.
Do they have spuds?
That's mostly all we had growing up. Peeled spuds, baked spuds, fried spuds, but, potatoes, they're mashed.
Loggers had some slang that has stayed with me. In college I said jigger-rig, as I was tought as appropriate in such settings, the polite way. Another insisted its Jerry-rig. Dumbest damned thing I ever heard. Guess they hadn't ever heard niigger-rig. Who the hell is Jerry?
Jury-rigged means something was assembled quickly with the materials on hand. Jerry-built means it was cheaply or poorly built. Jerry-rigged is a variant of jury-rigged, and it may have been influenced by jerry-built. While some people consider it to be an incorrect version of jury-rigged, it’s widely used, especially in everyday speech.
What does jury-rigged mean?
The word jury has a few different meanings. It can be a group of people that decides the verdict in a legal case or a group of people who judge a contest. Via French, this jury goes back to a Latin verb meaning “to swear (an oath),” also seen in words like perjury.
But, in the nautical world, jury means “makeshift” or “temporary.” The origin of this jury isn’t exactly known.
The word rig is also a nautical term. As a verb, it means “to fit a ship or mast with the necessary elements (such as shrouds and sails).” More generally, it means “to assemble.” Together, these words become jury-rigged by the late 18th century.
A jury-rig, as a noun, is a temporary solution that’s built to replace something that’s been broken or lost overboard. The word can also be used as a verb. For example: “She jury-rigged a new topmast after hers broke in the wind.” Although this expression is rooted in the nautical world, it can refer to any makeshift, MacGyver-like fix: “He jury-rigged a raincoat from garbage bag in the garage.”
https://www.dictionary.com/e/jury-rigged-vs-jerry-rigged/
