contraption

A contraption is a complicated, often precarious machine, and the word itself has a similarly makeshift-looking history: its origin is unknown, though it was recorded by the early 19th century. One suggestion builds it from contrive, trap, and -tion; another says it may echo construction. Chambers proposes contrivance plus adaption. These are competing explanations, not a settled derivation. The word can also be used ironically or dismissively for almost any object; P. G. Wodehouse used it that way in Jeeves in the Offing in 1960, for a gardening hat.