The origin of old jalopy

Posted by zooeyhall on January 10, 2005 at 09:15:16 from (204.26.68.3):

Came across this strange piece of info the other day, which I thought members of the group might find interesting--since many of us members are involved in what today is called "used parts recycling".

In the 1920"s and 30"s, the Mexican city of Jalapa (the "j" is pronounced like an "h") had a thriving industry that involved recycling old American vehicles and machinery for scrap. The old car bodies in US junkyards that were destined to be shipped there would have the word "JALAPA" written on them with big chalk letters. The crazy Gringos changed the pronounciation of the first letter to be like the j in "jello" and corrupted the ending. Thus, the word "jalopy" came to mean any old or beat-up car or truck.

I am doing research on John Steinbeck for my Masters degree. He is said to have first popularized the word in his novel The Grapes of Wrath.

Follow Ups:

• Re: The origin of old jalopy NEsota 11:17:47 01/10/05 (0)

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