Jalopy

For other uses, see Jalopy (disambiguation).

A Jalopy Ford Festiva

A jalopy (also clunker or hooptie or beater) 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^[1] 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).^[2] If it remains parked homeless people may sleep in it or the local authority commonly tows 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.^{[citation needed]}

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 rodders 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.

Etymology

The origin of the word is unknown. It is possible that the non Spanish-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.^[1]

A 1929 definition reads as follows: "Jaloppi--A cheap make of automobile; an automobile fit only for junking."^[3] 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):^[4]

"Sam trotted off toward the bunk houses, and London followed more slowly. John Weir the Great, King of the Nords and Jim circled the building and went to the ancient Ford touring car. 'Get in, Jim. You drive the gillopy.' A roar of voices came from the other side of the bunk house. Jim turned the key and retarded the spark lever. The coils buzzed like little rattlesnakes."

Jalopy seems to have replaced flivver (1910), which in the early decades of the twentieth century also simply meant "a failure."^[5] 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-Lot.

Racing class

A jalopy was an old-style class of stock car racing, often raced on dirt American ovals.^[6] It was originally a beginner class behind midgets, but vehicles became more expensive with time.^[6] Jalopy races began in the 1930s and ended in the 1960s.^[7] The race car needed to be from before around 1941.^[6] Notable racers include Parnelli Jones.^[7]

Popular culture

The character Archie Andrews 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.

See also

• Cash for Clunkers
• Depreciation
• Decrepit car
• Lemon (automobile)
• Demolition Derby

Notes

1. ^ ^{a b} "jalopy". Online Etymology Dictionary. Douglas Harper. http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=jalopy. Retrieved 3 January 2011. 
2. ^ "Abandoned Vehicle Law & Legal Definition". USLegal.com. US Legal, Inc. http://definitions.uslegal.com/a/abandoned-vehicle/. Retrieved 3 January 2011. 
3. ^ "And Why Do We Call Them That?". American Heritage. April/May 1986. http://www.americanheritage.com/content/and-why-do-we-call-them. Retrieved 25 August 2011. 
4. ^ Steinbeck, John In Dubious Battle, Penguin Classics, 2006, ISBN 0143039636; Page 81
5. ^ "Slang of the 1920s". Antique Automobile Club of America. http://local.aaca.org/bntc/slang/slang.htm. Retrieved 3 January 2011. 
6. ^ ^{a b c} "Jalopy Racing Craze, Nipping Baseball Take". Google News Archive. Prescott Evening Courier. http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=897&dat=19510719&id=9t8KAAAAIBAJ&sjid=ElADAAAAIBAJ&pg=6395,1742520. Retrieved 9 January 2010. 
7. ^ ^{a b} Kennedy, Tim (21 January 2009). "BOOK REVIEW: "MEMORIES OF THE CALIFORNIA JALOPY ASSOCIATION"". Racing West. http://www.racingwest.com/news/articles/19692-book-review-memories-of-the-california-jalopy.html. Retrieved 9 January 2010. 

External links

How to Get Rid of an Old Car WikiHow article on getting rid of a jalopy