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

[Wilson Gray]

"The song is ended, but the melody lingers on."

-Wilson Gray

On 1/10/06, Mullins, Bill AMRDEC <Bill.Mullins at us.army.mil> wrote:
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Mullins, Bill AMRDEC" <Bill.Mullins at US.ARMY.MIL>
> Subject:      Re: "Ghetto" now (also) means "jury-rigged"?
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> A couple of quasi-synonyms:
> =20
> nigger-rigged
> Afro-engineered
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> 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/
>