kludge
Meanings
Plural: kludges
Noun
- a badly assembled collection of parts hastily assembled to serve some particular purpose (often used to refer to computing systems or software that has been badly put together)
- An improvised device, typically crudely constructed to test the validity of a principle before implementing 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 / Etymology
Perhaps from British military slang, possibly based on Scots word kludge or kludgie (“common toilet”), or perhaps from German klug (“clever”). Alternatively, possibly related to Polish klucz (“key, clue, main point”) and Russian ключ (ključ, “key, clue”).
Alternatively, perhaps from (a form related to) Germanic words such as Dutch Low Saxon klütje (“(little) dumpling, clod”), Dutch kluit(je) 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", 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.
Synonyms
bodge, cludge, cobble together, jury-rig, kludge, kluge, knock together, knock up, MacGyver, make-do, patch, patch-up, workaround
Scrabble Score: 12
kludge is a valid Scrabble (US) TWL wordkludge is a valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
kludge is a valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary