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From: cw@vaxwaller.UUCP (Carl Weidling)
Newsgroups: net.books
Subject: Re: Kludge and dictionaries
Message-ID: <226@vaxwaller.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 14-Mar-85 13:57:36 EST
Article-I.D.: vaxwalle.226
Posted: Thu Mar 14 13:57:36 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 23-Mar-85 00:02:36 EST
References: <906@ratex.UUCP> <220@vaxwaller.UUCP> <2314@mit-hermes.ARPA>
Organization: Varian, Walnut Creek, CA
Lines: 40

> > 
> >      But what dictionaries define the word kludge? (I'm not even sure
> >      how to spell it because I can't find it in any dictionaries.
> 
> Oddly enough I have a friend who wrote to Webster's (actually the G.&C. Merriam
> Co.) a few years back concerning the use of "kluge" (sic) as a verb and
> the adjective "kludgy" or "klugy". Here's part of their reply:
> 
> .....
> 
> 	_Kluge_ is defined in one of our latest publications, "6000 Words: A
> Supplement to Webster's Third New International Dictionary", as follows:
> 
> 	kludge also kluge \'kluj <2 dots over the u>\ n, [origin unknown]:
> 	 a system and esp. a computer system made up of components 
> 	 that are poorly matched or were orig. intended for some other use.
> 
> 
> I have heard the suggestion that "kludge" derives from the name of the Kluge
> printing machinery company, whose products (at least one of which is in student
> hands here at MIT) are of fearsome complexity.
...
> 			John Purbrick
> 			decvax!genrad!mit-eddie!mit-hermes!jpexg
> 			jpexg@mit-hermes.ARPA

	First, let me thank John Purbrick and the others who have responded to
my query.
	The reason I tried looking the word up in the first place was to check
on its origin, which is apparently unknown.  Anyone else out there have any
guesses?  Where did YOU first hear the word?  I can't be sure, but I don't
believe I heard it while a CS major at Florida Atlantic U.  So I must have
heard it at my 1st job at Modular Computer Systems, which would have been after
April of 1978.
	It's sort of like the origin of the word BUG.  I was under the
impression that that came from an incident at a Naval Observatory in Maryland
around 1949 involving real insects, but I believe someone on the net said it
was older than that.  The older term had been GREMLIN.
				Regards,
				Carl