After a quarter century of building robots and related things you might imagine I'd be getting good at it. Not really. I lack both the patience and the base skill set. Plus, I see building things as more of an art form. I prefer funky and creative over cold, efficient engineering. As a result, many of the things my hands have touched have been described as "Janky".
If the term is unfamiliar to you, well, it means roughly "slapped together, temperamental, probably made of dubious parts". I plead guilty as charged.
It is also a very new word, originating sometime in the 1990's, and probably as a variation on "junky".
"Junky" as in, made of junk, dates to the 1870's, while the base word, Junk is older. Mid 14th century in fact, and supposedly derived from "junc". This nautical term meant rope or cable, stuff that when it got old was cut up and used for caulking hulls. A worthy form of recycling in my opinion.
Recently my eye was caught by a word that is trying very hard to be related to Janky. Specifically, "Janka".
The Janka Scale is a way to accurately measure the hardness of wood. Quite handy if you want to build non-janky things. It is equivalent to the Rockwell scale for metal, and measured in much the same way.
It would be great if Janka, Janky, Junk and various other words like junk (as a ship) or junket were all related somehow.
But, alas. Junket derives oddly from iuncus, a Late Latin word for basket. Junk, in the sense of a Chinese ship, comes from a Malay word jong, meaning a large ship. Nothing to do with caulking of hulls.
And Janka was the name of the Austrian born engineer who invented the Janka test. His surname, and that of my old pal Kim Johnke, probably derive from a variation on the name "Johan".
Oh, and when you are thinking on hard wooden objects, what about Jenga? Sorry, Swahili this time, kugenga, meaning to build.
Word origins can be convincing mimics.
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