jumper (thing)

There's an interesting etymological path from "jumper" as a sweater to PopeFelix's electrical dingus. As near as I can make it out, it goes like this...

• A jumper is a sweater -- a colourful garment you put on top of something else.
• A thin wire (an electrical lead) coated with some colourful plastic insulation is a "jumpered lead", or (in short) a "jumper", because it's a wire which is wearing a sweater.
• During industrial PCB design (e.g. on a computer's circuit board), single wires added after printing are called "jumpers", because they really are jumpers.
• Optional wires you connect to configure some portion of your circuit board are such jumpers.
• The black plastic dingus is invented; it's a short inflexible lead, which lets you configure some portion of your circuit board, so it must be a jumper.