Makeshift

Origin of: Makeshift

Makeshift

A temporary expedient or an inferior substitute dates in this sense from the early 19th century, but the etymology is not from shift as in to move but from shifty as in a person to distrust. A makeshift during the 16th century was a rogue or rascal but the meaning had evolved to its current meaning by the late 18th/early 19th century. See also Shifty.