Jalopy
Encyclopedia
A jalopy is a decrepit car
, often old and in a barely functional state. A jalopy is not a well kept antique car
, but a car which is mostly rundown or beaten up. As a slang
term in American English
, "Jalopy" was noted in 1924 but is now slightly passé. The term was used extensively in the book On the Road
by Jack Kerouac
, first published in 1957, although written from 1947. The equivalent English
term is old banger, often shortened to banger, a reference to older poorly maintained vehicles' tendency to back-fire
.
When a jalopy gets to a state in which its maintenance becomes too expensive, its owner would be required to make a decision about its fate. Some owners abandon it in the street as a parked car (an action forbidden by law in most jurisdictions). If it remains parked homeless people may sleep in it or the local authority commonly tow
s it to the junk yard. Other people may then sell it (or deliver it) to be stripped for spare parts for use in other vehicles.
During the 1930s, this word was used frequently when the market for used cars first started to grow. Cheap dealers could obtain the cars for very little, make aesthetic adjustments, and sell the car for much more. Early hot rod
ders also purchased jalopies as the basis for racers, and early stock car racing was called "jalopy racing". In the United Kingdom this sport is known as banger racing
.
-speaking New Orleans-based longshoremen, referring to scrapped autos destined for Jalapa
, Mexico
scrapyards, pronounced the destination on the palettes "jalopies" rather than multiples or possessive of Jalapa.
A 1929 definition reads as follows: "Jaloppi--A cheap make of automobile; an automobile fit only for junking." The definition has stayed the same, but it took a while for the spelling to standardize. Among the variants have been jallopy, jaloppy, jollopy, jaloopy, jalupie, julappi, jalapa, and jaloppie.
John Steinbeck
spelled it gillopy in In Dubious Battle (1936):
Jalopy seems to have replaced flivver (1910), which in the early decades of the twentieth century also simply meant "a failure." Other early terms for a wreck of a car included heap, tin lizzy (1915), and crate (1927), which probably derived from the WWI pilots' slang for an old, slow and unreliable aeroplane.
.
, often raced on dirt
American ovals. It was originally a beginner class behind midgets
, but vehicles became more expensive with time. Jalopy races began in the 1930s and ended in the 1960s. The race car needed to be from before around 1941. Notable racers include Parnelli Jones
.
of Archie Comics
was well known for his jalopy, which has been referred to as an "1912 Maxwell". Chet Morton, from the Hardy Boys series of books by Franklin W. Dixon
, also drove a Jalopy, called "The Queen".
The popular pinball
game Junkyard by Williams features the creation of a 'Flying Jalopy' as its central plot. In it, the player character must create a flying machine from common junkyard items including a bathtub, an old television
set and wheels.
In Chapter 7 of the novel The Grapes of Wrath
by John Steinbeck
, a used car dealer takes advantage of desperate dust bowl refugees fleeing to California
by selling jalopies to them at a large profit margin. He misrepresents the condition of the vehicles by painting over rust, making false claims about their reliability, and using sawdust to deaden excessive engine and gear noise. The Joad family buys one of these jalopies, a Hudson 'Super Six' sedan, which is converted into a truck.
On an edition of Family Fortunes
with Les Dennis
, the question was 'a slang term for car'. Jalopy was answered, with 6 people surveyed answering it.
In the 1950 movie, Sunset Boulevard
, the main character played by William Holden
uses the word in the line; "Once back in Dayton, I'd drop the credit boys a picture postcard telling them where to pick up the jalopy". The vehicle in question was a 1946 Plymouth convertible that was three payments behind.
Decrepit car
A decrepit car is an old, dilapidated and often rusty and dysfunctional car. Such a vehicle is not a well kept antique car, but a car which is mostly rundown or damaged...
, often old and in a barely functional state. A jalopy is not a well kept antique car
Antique car
In the United States, an antique car is generally defined as a car over 45 years of age, this being the definition used by the Antique Automobile Club of America. However, the legal definition for the purpose of antique vehicle registration varies widely. The antique car era includes the veteran...
, but a car which is mostly rundown or beaten up. As a slang
Slang
Slang is the use of informal words and expressions that are not considered standard in the speaker's language or dialect but are considered more acceptable when used socially. Slang is often to be found in areas of the lexicon that refer to things considered taboo...
term in American English
American English
American English is a set of dialects of the English language used mostly in the United States. Approximately two-thirds of the world's native speakers of English live in the United States....
, "Jalopy" was noted in 1924 but is now slightly passé. The term was used extensively in the book On the Road
On the Road
On the Road is a novel by American writer Jack Kerouac, written in April 1951, and published by Viking Press in 1957. It is a largely autobiographical work that was based on the spontaneous road trips of Kerouac and his friends across mid-century America. It is often considered a defining work of...
by Jack Kerouac
Jack Kerouac
Jean-Louis "Jack" Lebris de Kerouac was an American novelist and poet. He is considered a literary iconoclast and, alongside William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, a pioneer of the Beat Generation. Kerouac is recognized for his spontaneous method of writing, covering topics such as Catholic...
, first published in 1957, although written from 1947. The equivalent English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
term is old banger, often shortened to banger, a reference to older poorly maintained vehicles' tendency to back-fire
Back-fire
A Back-fire or backfire is an explosion produced by a running internal combustion engine that occurs in the air intake or exhaust system rather than inside the combustion chamber. The same term is used when unburned fuel or hydrocarbons are ignited somewhere in the exhaust system. A visible flame...
.
When a jalopy gets to a state in which its maintenance becomes too expensive, its owner would be required to make a decision about its fate. Some owners abandon it in the street as a parked car (an action forbidden by law in most jurisdictions). If it remains parked homeless people may sleep in it or the local authority commonly tow
Towing
Towing is the process of pulling or drawing behind a chain, line, bar or some other form of couplings. Towing is most visibly performed by road vehicles, but anything from waterborne vessels to tractors to people can tow cargo. Troop carrying and cargo carrying gliders were towed behind powered...
s it to the junk yard. Other people may then sell it (or deliver it) to be stripped for spare parts for use in other vehicles.
During the 1930s, this word was used frequently when the market for used cars first started to grow. Cheap dealers could obtain the cars for very little, make aesthetic adjustments, and sell the car for much more. Early hot rod
Hot rod
Hot rods are typically American cars with large engines modified for linear speed. The origin of the term "hot rod" is unclear. One explanation is that the term is a contraction of "hot roadster," meaning a roadster that was modified for speed. Another possible origin includes modifications to or...
ders also purchased jalopies as the basis for racers, and early stock car racing was called "jalopy racing". In the United Kingdom this sport is known as banger racing
Banger racing
Banger Racing is a tarmac or dirt track racing type of motorsport event popularised in both North America and Europe and especially United Kingdom, Ireland, Belgium and the Netherlands in which drivers of old vehicles race against one another around a race track and the race is...
.
Etymology
The origin of the word is unknown. It is possible that the non SpanishSpanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
-speaking New Orleans-based longshoremen, referring to scrapped autos destined for Jalapa
Jalapa
* Xalapa, Veracruz* Jalapa, Baja California* Jalapa, Guerrero* In the state of Oaxaca:** Santa María Jalapa del Marqués** San Felipe Jalapa de Díaz** Jalapa del Valle* Jalapa, Tabasco...
, Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
scrapyards, pronounced the destination on the palettes "jalopies" rather than multiples or possessive of Jalapa.
A 1929 definition reads as follows: "Jaloppi--A cheap make of automobile; an automobile fit only for junking." The definition has stayed the same, but it took a while for the spelling to standardize. Among the variants have been jallopy, jaloppy, jollopy, jaloopy, jalupie, julappi, jalapa, and jaloppie.
John Steinbeck
John Steinbeck
John Ernst Steinbeck, Jr. was an American writer. He is widely known for the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Grapes of Wrath and East of Eden and the novella Of Mice and Men...
spelled it gillopy in In Dubious Battle (1936):
Jalopy seems to have replaced flivver (1910), which in the early decades of the twentieth century also simply meant "a failure." Other early terms for a wreck of a car included heap, tin lizzy (1915), and crate (1927), which probably derived from the WWI pilots' slang for an old, slow and unreliable aeroplane.
Synonyms
Others terms that have been used with the same or similar meaning include "clunker", "bucket", "beater", and more urban "hooptie", which gained some popularity from the humorous song "My hooptie" by Sir Mix-a-LotSir Mix-a-Lot
Anthony Ray , better known by his stage name Sir Mix-a-Lot, is an emcee and producer based in Seattle, Washington. The founder of the Nastymix record label, he debuted in 1988 with Swass...
.
Racing class
A jalopy was an old-style class of stock car racingStock car racing
Stock car racing is a form of automobile racing found mainly in the United States, Canada, New Zealand, Great Britain, Brazil and Argentina. Traditionally, races are run on oval tracks measuring approximately in length...
, often raced on dirt
Dirt track racing
Dirt track racing is a type of auto racing performed on oval tracks. It began in the United States before World War I and became widespread during the 1920s and 30s. Two different types of racecars predominated—open wheel racers in the Northeast and West and stock cars in the South...
American ovals. It was originally a beginner class behind midgets
Midget car racing
Midget cars, also Speedcars in Australia, are very small race cars with a very high power-to-weight ratio and typically use four-cylinder engines.-Cars:Typically, these cars have 300 to 400 horsepower and weigh...
, but vehicles became more expensive with time. Jalopy races began in the 1930s and ended in the 1960s. The race car needed to be from before around 1941. Notable racers include Parnelli Jones
Parnelli Jones
Rufus Parnell "Parnelli" Jones , is a retired American racing driver and racecar owner. He is most remembered for his 1963 Indianapolis 500 win, and almost winning the 1967 Indy 500 in a turbine car...
.
Popular culture
The character Archie AndrewsArchie Andrews (comics)
Archie Andrews, created in 1941 by Vic Bloom and Bob Montana, is a fictional character in an American comic book series published by Archie Comics, as well as the long-running Archie Andrews radio series, a syndicated comic strip, The Archie Show, and Archie's Weird Mysteries.-Character and...
of Archie Comics
Archie Comics
Archie Comics is an American comic book publisher headquartered in the Village of Mamaroneck, Town of Mamaroneck, New York, known for its many series featuring the fictional teenagers Archie Andrews, Betty Cooper, Veronica Lodge, Reggie Mantle and Jughead Jones. The characters were created by...
was well known for his jalopy, which has been referred to as an "1912 Maxwell". Chet Morton, from the Hardy Boys series of books by Franklin W. Dixon
Franklin W. Dixon
Franklin W. Dixon is the pen name used by a variety of different authors who wrote The Hardy Boys novels for the Stratemeyer Syndicate...
, also drove a Jalopy, called "The Queen".
The popular pinball
Pinball
Pinball is a type of arcade game, usually coin-operated, where a player attempts to score points by manipulating one or more metal balls on a playfield inside a glass-covered case called a pinball machine. The primary objective of the game is to score as many points as possible...
game Junkyard by Williams features the creation of a 'Flying Jalopy' as its central plot. In it, the player character must create a flying machine from common junkyard items including a bathtub, an old television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
set and wheels.
In Chapter 7 of the novel The Grapes of Wrath
The Grapes of Wrath
The Grapes of Wrath is a novel published in 1939 and written by John Steinbeck, who was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1940 and the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1962....
by John Steinbeck
John Steinbeck
John Ernst Steinbeck, Jr. was an American writer. He is widely known for the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Grapes of Wrath and East of Eden and the novella Of Mice and Men...
, a used car dealer takes advantage of desperate dust bowl refugees fleeing to California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
by selling jalopies to them at a large profit margin. He misrepresents the condition of the vehicles by painting over rust, making false claims about their reliability, and using sawdust to deaden excessive engine and gear noise. The Joad family buys one of these jalopies, a Hudson 'Super Six' sedan, which is converted into a truck.
On an edition of Family Fortunes
Family Fortunes
Family Fortunes is a British game show, based on the American game show Family Feud. The programme ran on ITV from 6 January 1980 to 6 December 2002 before being revived by the same channel in 2006 under the title of All Star Family Fortunes...
with Les Dennis
Les Dennis
Les Dennis is an English comedian, television presenter and actor best known as the host of Family Fortunes for 15 years.-Early life:...
, the question was 'a slang term for car'. Jalopy was answered, with 6 people surveyed answering it.
In the 1950 movie, Sunset Boulevard
Sunset Boulevard (film)
Sunset Boulevard is a 1950 American film noir directed and co-written by Billy Wilder, and produced and co-written by Charles Brackett...
, the main character played by William Holden
William Holden
William Holden was an American actor. Holden won the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1954 and the Emmy Award for Best Actor in 1974...
uses the word in the line; "Once back in Dayton, I'd drop the credit boys a picture postcard telling them where to pick up the jalopy". The vehicle in question was a 1946 Plymouth convertible that was three payments behind.
See also
- Cash for Clunkers
- DepreciationDepreciationDepreciation refers to two very different but related concepts:# the decrease in value of assets , and# the allocation of the cost of assets to periods in which the assets are used ....
- Decrepit carDecrepit carA decrepit car is an old, dilapidated and often rusty and dysfunctional car. Such a vehicle is not a well kept antique car, but a car which is mostly rundown or damaged...
- Lemon (automobile)Lemon (automobile)A lemon is a car, often new, that is found to be defective only after it has been bought. Any vehicle with numerous, severe issues can be termed a "lemon", and, by extension, any product with flaws too great or severe to serve its purpose can be described as a "lemon".-Origin:The use of the word...
- Demolition DerbyDemolition derbyDemolition derby is a motorsport usually presented at county fairs and festivals. While rules vary from event to event, the typical demolition derby event consists of five or more drivers competing by deliberately ramming their vehicles into one another...