kludge

Meanings

Noun

• An improvised device, typically crudely constructed to test the validity of a principle before doing a finished design.
• Any construction or practice, typically crude yet effective, designed to solve a problem temporarily or expediently.
• An amalgamated mass of unrelated parts.
• A badly written or makeshift piece of software; a hack.

Verb

• To build or use a kludge.

Origin

• Perhaps from British military slang, possibly based on a Scots word kludge or kludgie, or perhaps from German klug ("clever"). Alternatively, possibly related to Polish klucz ("a key, a hint, a main point") and Russian ключ ("key, clue").
• Alternatively, perhaps from (a form related to) Germanic words such as Dutch Low Saxon klütje ("(little) dumpling, clod"), Dutch kluit or Jutland Danish klyt ("piece of bad workmanship, klud(g)e"); compare and standard Danish kludder ("mess, disorder"). (Compare [[klutz.)
• There is evidence that kluge (which see) was once a separate word with similar meaning but separate derivation, but the spelling kludge was widely popularized in the US by a 1962 Datamation article on "How to Design a Kludge",
• {{cite-magazine
• |date=February 1962
• |title=How to Design a Kludge
• |author=Jackson W. Granholm
• |work=DATAMATION
• |pages=30-31
• and since then the two words have often been used as alternative spellings of each other.
• According to the OED, an "invented word" influenced by bodge and fudge.