"Ghetto" now (also) means "jury-rigged"?

[Mullins, Bill AMRDEC]

A couple of quasi-synonyms:
 
nigger-rigged
Afro-engineered

________________________________

From: American Dialect Society on behalf of Grant Barrett
Sent: Mon 1/9/2006 8:28 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: "Ghetto" now (also) means "jury-rigged"?




On Jan 9, 2006, at 18:15, Joel S. Berson wrote:
> Grant Barrett wrote "Wilson and Alice's glosses are similar to mine:
> jerry-rigged, improvised, half-assed, knock-off, bootleg, cheap,
> tacky."  Are these glosses on the usage re the hand-scanner (although
> I don't see all these as synonymous or as equally applicable to this
> example)?  Or are they glosses on "ghetto" that you've picked up in
> other contexts?

They are all glosses on "ghetto" I've seen elsewhere. In the context
Wilson provides, which I've seen frequently, I'd just gloss it as
"jury/jerry-rigged, improvised," although there's a rough gradient in
the possible glosses I gave:

improvised
jerry-rigged
half-assed
knock-off
bootleg (which can also mean cheap/shoddy/worthless in recent slang
usage)
cheap (shoddy, poorly made)
tacky (tasteless, unfashionable)

Grant Barrett
gbarrett at worldnewyork.org
http://www.doubletongued.org/