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prettygoodwordjalopy (juh-LOP-ee) - n., (US slang, dated) an old, dilapidated, or unpretentious automobile.
A junker -- though also sometimes, through the way slang works, a hip, cool vehicle (I've never seen/heard this sense used unironically, but that might be because the word is aging out). A good name for the Alleged Car. This was first recorded in 1924 ± 1 (dictionaries disagree on the exact year) and no one has a clue for the origin -- like, there's a half-dozen possible languages proposed. The most common suggestion is from Jalapa (now spelled Xalapa), Mexico, where it became a common in the 1920s to ship used cars there for rehabilitation then resell them in the United States, especially New Orleans, but another is Spanish galapago, tortoise, because junkers are often slow.
---L.
A junker -- though also sometimes, through the way slang works, a hip, cool vehicle (I've never seen/heard this sense used unironically, but that might be because the word is aging out). A good name for the Alleged Car. This was first recorded in 1924 ± 1 (dictionaries disagree on the exact year) and no one has a clue for the origin -- like, there's a half-dozen possible languages proposed. The most common suggestion is from Jalapa (now spelled Xalapa), Mexico, where it became a common in the 1920s to ship used cars there for rehabilitation then resell them in the United States, especially New Orleans, but another is Spanish galapago, tortoise, because junkers are often slow.
---L.
