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From: marko@mako.UUCP (Mark O'Shea)
Newsgroups: net.books,net.nlang
Subject: Re: Kludge and dictionaries
Message-ID: <651@mako.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 18-Mar-85 17:57:10 EST
Article-I.D.: mako.651
Posted: Mon Mar 18 17:57:10 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 21-Mar-85 02:14:17 EST
References: <906@ratex.UUCP> <220@vaxwaller.UUCP> <2314@mit-hermes.ARPA>
Reply-To: marko@mako.UUCP (Mark O'Shea)
Organization: Tektronix, Wilsonville OR
Lines: 16
Xref: watmath net.books:1583 net.nlang:2730




When I was an electronic tech in the USAF(25 years ago), The word "kludge"
was used a lot by Hughes Aircraft Company field engineers to describe
anything we whipped up in the field to get a job done.  Most often it 
referred to home made test equipment.  

As you can imagine, more often than not, home made test equip was put
together with whatever was available.  The word was spelled "klooge"
whenever I saw it in print.

It was a verb or noun and was used in the past tense as in "klooged up
a ....".  No one I knew back then knew (or I suspect cared) about the 
origin of the word.  We picked it up and used it rather freely.  It was
even used to describe someone who was not well liked.