… most of the vehicles on Bismuth were janky unregistered pick-ups that reeked of fish water. Corwin Ericson
also: not functioning properly or adequately : faulty
Hahn was incredibly down-to-earth in her normal-looking home with her somewhat janky Wi-Fi. Chris Murphy
"My family had medical debt, because we live in the jankiest medical system in the developed world." Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
Word History
Etymology
of uncertain origin
Note: Early records of the word indicate an origin in African-American speech. Oxford English Dictionary, third edition, hypothesize that it represents "a regional, affected, or colloquial pronunciation of junky entry 1". According to Clarence Major, in Juba to Jive: A Dictionary of African-American Slang (New York, 1994), it is "probably a variant of jinxed" (see jinx entry 2).