An old, beat-up car that's usually in poor condition but still runs, often used humorously or affectionately.
Origin uncertain but possibly from Jalapa, Mexico, or a deformation of Yalapa; first appeared in American slang around the 1920s. It coincided with mass automobile ownership and the need to describe unreliable used cars.
Jalopy emerged right when cars became common enough that regular people could own broken-down versions—it's a perfect example of how slang evolves when a new technology becomes widespread but also fallible, similar to how 'clunker' and 'heap' appeared at the same time.
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