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

Sat May 18 17:31:56 UTC 2019

Peter: I think you meant to say "Davy Crockett" instead of "Daniel
Boone". The chapter about "The Kushmaker" by Alan Dundes mentions an
anecdote reportedly told by Davy Crockett.

One of Crockett's unskilled neighbors wished to fashion an axe from a
piece of iron. He visited a blacksmith, and the iron was heated. The
neighbor spent almost an entire day striking the metal and attempting
to create an axe, but he failed. He was also unsuccessful while
attempting to create a mattock.

The blacksmith suggested that he next try to make a ploughshare. After
yet another failure the blacksmith told the neighbor that he had
succeeded in creating a "fine skow". The red hot iron was thrown "into
a trough of water near him, and as it fell in, it sung out skow".

The Google Books database contains an 1833 book that includes the
David Crockett anecdote about a blacksmith and an unskilled neighbor.

Year: 1833
Title: Sketches and Eccentricities of Col. David Crockett of West Tennessee
Printer and Publisher: by J. & J. Harper, New York
Chapter VI
Quote Page 79 and 80

https://books.google.com/books?id=RZsOAAAAYAAJ&q=%22fine+skow%22#v=snippet&

[Begin excerpt - check for typos]
"Mr. Speaker--Do you know what that man's bill reminds me of? Well, I
'spose you don't, so I'll tell you. Well, Mr. Speaker, when I first
come to this country, a blacksmith was a rare thing; but there
happened to be one in my neighbourhood; he had no striker, and
whenever one of the neighbours wanted any work done, he had to go over
and strike till his work was finished.

These were hard times, Mr. Speaker, but we had to do the best we
could. It happened that one of my neighbours wanted an axe, so he took
along with him a piece of iron, and went over to the blacksmith's to
strike till his axe was done.

The iron was heated, and my neighbour fell to work, and was striking
there nearly all day; when the blacksmith concluded the iron would n't
make an axe, but 'twould make a fine mattock; so my neighbour wanting
a mattock, concluded he would go over and strike till his mattock was
done; accordingly, he went over the next day, and worked faithfully;
but towards night the blacksmith concluded his iron would n't make a
mattock, but 'twould make a fine ploughshare; so my neighbour wanting
a ploughshare, agreed that he would go over the next day and strike
till that was done; accordingly, he again went over, and fell hard to
work; but towards night the blacksmith concluded his iron would n't
make a ploughshare, but 'twould make a fine skow; so my neighbour,
tired working, cried, a skow let it be--and the blacksmith taking up
the red hot iron, threw it into a trough of water near him, and as it
fell in, it sung out skow.

And this, Mr. Speaker, will be the way with that man's bill for a
county; he'll keep you all here doing nothing, and finally his bill
will turn out a skow, now mind if it don't."
[End excerpt]

Garson

On Sat, May 18, 2019 at 12:48 AM Peter Reitan <pjreitan at hotmail.com> wrote:
>
> An entry in wikipedia<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kludge> includes a reference to discussions on kluge and kludge on a site called catb.org apparently maintained by Eric S. Raymond.
>
>
> http://www.catb.org/~esr/jargon/html/K/kluge.html
>
> http://www.catb.org/~esr/jargon/html/K/kludge.html
>
> The entry for kluge includes the reference to "Murgatroyd the Klugemaker" in the New York Folklore magazine that Garson found.
>
> Searching for the title "Murgatroyd the Klugemaker," I found an essay in a collection of later published folklore essays which discusses "Murgatroyd the Klugemaker" and a long list of similar stories that use different words that make splashing sounds, including most commonly, "kush," versions of which are attributed to Daniel Boone and Abraham Lincoln.
>
> The Meaning of Folklore: the analytical essays of Alan Dundes, Logan, Utah, Utah State University Press, 2007, pages 375-381.
>
> https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=usu.39060016914185;view=1up;seq=392
>
> I was in the Navy and later the Navy reserves for more than a decade and never heard the story, so it may have disappeared over time.
>
> The various splashing sounds suggests that this story is less likely related to the later "Kludge" than it may seem at first blush.
>
> I haven't found a copy of the earliest "How to Design a Kludge" article from February 1962 referenced earlier, but archive.org has two related articles from a series of at least four "Kludge" articles from the same year that give a sense of how it was used at the time.
>
> "How to Maintain a Kludge," Datamation, June 1962, pages 40-42.
> https://archive.org/details/bitsavers_datamationeJun62_285769
>
> "Master Plan for Kludge Software," Dr. Morris L. Morris & Dr. Austin O Arthur, Kludge Komputer Korp., Datamation, July 1962.
> https://archive.org/details/bitsavers_datamationdgeSoftwareJul62_283779
>
> A glossary of terms in a computer text published in 1963 defines a "kludge" as:
> H. N. Laden and T. R. Gildersleeve, System Design for Computer Applications, New York, 1963, page 304<https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=wu.89046877692;view=1up;seq=312>.
> [Begin excerpt]
> Kludge. In computer humor, the archetypical, farcical, or apocryphal black box and computer system.  The Kludge Komputer Corporation and the Kludge device are the butts of much computer humor.  also, term of endearment for computer as household pet, as in "our Kludge."
> [End Excerpt]
>
> The catb.org entry for Kluge also includes a discussion of a theory that the word is derived from an automated printing device manufactured by Brandtjen & Kluge Inc.  Before running across that discussion I had already found a few references from the 1960s referring to such "Kluge" or "Kludge" printers, one of them a reprint of something printed in the 1940s.  Apparently the company's name is spelled K-L-U-G-E, but in all three of the references to it I found it is spelled K-L-U-D-G-E, and one reference uses both spellings in the same item.
>
> Is it possible that an "automatic" printing press from the 1940s had to interface with some sort of electronic or computer control - and that it would be so cumbersome that a later generation of computer scientists adopted the word as their own?  I guess that's the speculation.
>
> The Potter Enterprise (Coudersport, Pennsylvania), October 3, 1962, page 17:
> "Do You Remember? Compiled from the files of the Leader Dispatch, August 27, 1942 . . .
> Leader-Dispatch installs Kludge automatic printing press."
>
> Chicago Tribune, April 24, 1966, page 1B-14  (both spellings in same ad):
> "For sale: LETTERPRESS - AUTOMATIC . . . 12x18 C & P - Kludge Unit . . .
> 10x15 C & P - Kluge Unit"
>
> Orlando Evening Star, January 25, 1962, page 7D.
>
> "Help wanted: PRESSMAN - Full or part time, experience Multilith and Kludge."
>
> ------ Original Message ------
> From: "ADSGarson O'Toole" <adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com>
> To: ADS-L at listserv.uga.edu
> Sent: 5/17/2019 8:59:38 PM
> Subject: Re: "kludgy, adj." - Word of the Day from the OED
>
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster: ADSGarson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject: Re: "kludgy, adj." - Word of the Day from the OED
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> 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> wrot=
> e:
>
> There's a long discussion of "kluge" (the original spelling) in John A.
> Barry's "Technobabble" (1991). Several of his sources from the electronic=
> s
> 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 acrony=
> m
> 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.
> > [=E2=80=98Made or designed in an awkward, makeshift, or haphazard manne=
> r;
> > inelegant; not user-friendly.=E2=80=99]
> > Pronunciation: Brit. /=CB=88kl=CA=8Cd=CA=92i/, /=CB=88klu=CB=90d=CA=92i=
> /, U.S. /=CB=88klud=CA=92i/
> > Forms: 19=E2=80=93 cludgey, 19=E2=80=93 cludgy, 19=E2=80=93 kludge=
> y, 19=E2=80=93 kludgy, 19=E2=80=93
> > 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.
> > ________________________________
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
>
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