[Ads-l] "kludgy, adj." - Word of the Day from the OED

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

Another word of enormous importance derived from "kludge" is
"kludgification". This self-illustrative word appeared in an
advertisement in "The New Yorker" in 1973. Shortly afterwards the word
mavens  William and Mary Morris received an inquiry. The Morris's
definition for "kludge"  is a not quite right (in my opinion), but the
IBM executive's comment is entertaining.

Date: November 26, 1973
Newspaper: The New Yorker
Article: Advertisement for book "Malice in Blunderland" by Thomas L. Martin Jr.
Quote Page 193, Column 2
Database: archives.newyorker.com

[Begin excerpt]
Martin's masterpiece invokes the Finagle Factor, Kalan's Corollary,
Rosenzweig's Rubric, Wilson's Law (Flip, that is)—and many other major
theoretical breakthroughs—to demonstrate definitively why every
bureaucracy tends inexorably toward complete kludgification and
ultimate stasis.
[End excerpt]


Date: February 1, 1974
Newspaper: Paterson News
Newspaper Location: Paterson, New Jersey
Article: Words, Wit, And Wisdom
Author: William and Mary Morris
Quote Page 35, Column 8
Database: Newspapers.com

[Begin excerpt]
DEAR MORRISES: An article in a recent issue of the New Yorker used the
word "kludgification." This word is not in any dictionary I have
available. Would you care to comment? -- Mrs. A.H. Johnson, Watertown,
Conn.

A -- We tracked down "kludge" a few years ago and included it in
Volume III of our Dictionary of Word and Phrase Origins (Harper &
Row). It's a word popular among computer programmers and means an
absolute mess, a complete foul-up. It's pronounced KLOOJ, by the way.
An IBM executive once volunteered a somewhat more elegant definition,
to wit, "an ill-assorted collection of poorly matching parts, forming
a distressing whole." Obviously, then, "kludgification" would be the
process of creating a kludge. All clear now?
[End excerpt]

Garson

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