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

[Dan Goncharoff]

I can't see "kluge maker" without hearing "kluge macher". Has anyone looked
into a Yiddish derivation, given the increase of the presence of German
Jews in the military occupation of Germany. (Eg, who translated for
captured German scientists?)

On Fri, May 17, 2019, 11:59 PM ADSGarson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Nancy mentioned "Technobabble" which briefly referred to a World War
> II joke about a kluge maker. Below is a 1947 citation with more
> information. This tale may have nothing to do with the genesis of
> "kludge" in the sense under examination. I don't know.
>
> An article in 1947 reported that Mrs. Agnes N. Underwood of Russell
> Sage College collected military folklore stories from veterans. One
> shaggy-dog story concerned a "kluge maker".
>
> Murgatroyd enlisted in the Navy and achieved nearly perfect scores in
> the intelligence tests. When interviewed he claimed that he was a
> "kluge maker" in civilian life. So, the Navy decided he should
> continue this inscrutable activity, and he was assigned the job of
> making kluges.
>
> Date: February 17, 1947
> Newspaper: The Troy Record
> Newspaper Location: Troy, New York
> Article:  Sage Teacher Collects Service "Folklore" from GI Veterans In
> College English Classes (Continuation title "GI Folklore")
> Author: John A. Goldsmith
> Start Page 7, Quote Page 11, Column 4
> Database: Newspapers.com
>
> [Begin excerpt]
> A few days later Murgatroyd was called in to see the Captain again. He
> was told that the Admiral was about to pay an official visit and that
> he would expect to see a finished kluge. Murgatroyd was instructed to
> have a faultless kluge ready for the admiral--and he was promoted to
> kluge maker first class.
>
> The night before the Admiral's visit, Murgatroyd was busy with his
> equipment, and when the day dawned he was ready. When called by the
> Admiral, he exhibited a small but impressive array of screws and
> wires, nuts and bolts.
>
> "It looks fine," the Admiral said, coughing nervously, "Let's see how
> it works." The Admiral was a practical man.
>
> Murgatroyd, flustered but undaunted, stepped to the rail and as the
> Admiral watched, the kluge slipped from Murgatroyd's shaking hands.
>
> As it hit the water, the Admiral heard it plainly, it went,
> "K-k-l-l-uu-ge."
> [End excerpt]
>
> Garson
>
> On Thu, May 16, 2019 at 9:49 AM Nancy Friedman <wordworking at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> >
> > There's a long discussion of "kluge" (the original spelling) in John A.
> > Barry's "Technobabble" (1991). Several of his sources from the
> electronics
> > and aerospace industries give anecdotal support to the word's origins in
> > the mid- to late 1950s. One source says *kluge* was coined in 1956 by
> > Bernie Kravitz, who worked at General Electric's Heavy Military Equipment
> > Division in Syracuse, NY. According to this source, *kluge* was an
> acronym
> > for Kravitz's Large Unwieldy Giant Enigma.
> >
> > Nancy Friedman
> > Chief Wordworker
> > www.wordworking.com
> > http://nancyfriedman.typepad.com
> > tel 510 652-4159
> > cel 510 304-3953
> > twitter  Fritinancy
> >
> >
> > On Thu, May 16, 2019 at 5:56 AM Martin Kaminer <martin.kaminer at gmail.com
> >
> > wrote:
> >
> > > This has *got* to be older than 1970, no?
> > >
> > > ---------- Forwarded message ---------
> > > From: <oedwotd at oup.com>
> > > Date: Thu, May 16, 2019 at 3:33 AM
> > > Subject: "kludgy, adj." - Word of the Day from the OED
> > > To: <OEDWOTD-AMER-L at webber.uk.hub.oup.com>
> > >
> > > Your word for Thursday 16th May is: kludgy, adj.
> > >
> > > kludgy, adj.
> > > [‘Made or designed in an awkward, makeshift, or haphazard manner;
> > > inelegant; not user-friendly.’]
> > > Pronunciation: Brit. /ˈklʌdʒi/, /ˈkluːdʒi/,  U.S. /ˈkludʒi/
> > > Forms:  19– cludgey,   19– cludgy,   19– kludgey,   19– kludgy,   19–
> > > klugy.
> > > Origin: Formed within English, by derivation. Etymons: kludge n., -y
> > > suffix1.
> > > Etymology: <  kludge n. + -y suffix1.
> > >  slang (chiefly Computing).
> > >   Made or designed in an awkward, makeshift, or haphazard manner;
> > > inelegant; not user-friendly.
> > > 1970  L. Uhr Flexible Ling. Pattern Recognition(Univ. Wisconsin
> > > Computer Sci. Dept. Techn. Rep. 103) 40 They seem to be rather kludgey
> > > systems, hard to code and refine.
> > > 1971 Electronic Equipm. Engin.  Jan. 42/2 This arrangement looks good
> > > but it's a bit klugy so the set-up procedure is slow.
> > > 1984 PC  13 Nov. 131/2 This design is a kludgy way to handle RAM.
> > > 1992 Personal Computer World  Feb. 269/3 After using a number of
> > > Windows-based programs DOS feels kludgy.
> > > 2010 Atlantic Monthly  July 80/1 People will be more likely to pay for
> > > consumer-friendly apps..than they are to subscribe to the same old
> > > kludgy Web site they have been using freely for years.
> > > ________________________________
> > >
> > > ------------------------------------------------------------
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> > >
> >
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>
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