This week’s theme
Illustrated words

This week’s words
velutinous
eldritch
kludge
xeric
transpicuous

---

A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(klooj, kluhj)

MEANING:

noun: An inelegant, improvised solution to a problem.
verb tr.: To improvise a haphazard solution to a problem.

ETYMOLOGY:

Of uncertain origin. Earliest documented use: 1962.

NOTES:

The first documented use of the word is from a 1962 article by Jackson W. Granholm in Datamation magazine: “How to Design a Kludge”. That much is certain, but after that things get a bit fuzzy. Various origins have been suggested: German, Scots, military jargon, from the name of a paper feeder, but until we know definitely, we’ll just have to be content with saying: origin unknown.

USAGE:

“Alan was bolting things on as the client requested them and I could tell that the kludges were pushing the original design to its limits.”
Bernie Wieser; Memoirs of a Self-Loathing IT Professional; Legacy; 2014.

See more usage examples of kludge in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: