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From: jpexg@mit-hermes.ARPA (John Purbrick)
Newsgroups: net.books,net.nlang
Subject: Re: Kludge and dictionaries
Message-ID: <2314@mit-hermes.ARPA>
Date: Wed, 6-Mar-85 13:59:43 EST
Article-I.D.: mit-herm.2314
Posted: Wed Mar  6 13:59:43 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 9-Mar-85 20:11:46 EST
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Organization: The MIT AI Lab, Cambridge, MA
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> 
>      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.

The differences in spelling, part of speech, and pronunciation make your
citational contributions valuable. The evidence in our files greatly favors
the _kludge_ spelling and the noun usage. Until now we were unaware of the the 
pronunciation \'kluje <2 dots over u, accent over e>\ although a recent
citation containing the spelling _kludgy_ implies it. Our pronunciation editor
suggests that the \kluje\ pronunciation might be restricted to adjectival use
in analogy to many other adjectival pronunciations ending in \e \.

........
		Sincerely yours, etc.	(end of quote)

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.

Note that Steven Levy, in "Hackers", spells it "kluge", but he probably
collected his material orally and therefore had no way to check the spelling.

			John Purbrick
			decvax!genrad!mit-eddie!mit-hermes!jpexg
			jpexg@mit-hermes.ARPA