origins of "kludge"

[Huw Davies]

On 31/03/2005, at 7:27 AM, Chad Fernandez wrote:

> Pete Turnbull wrote:
>> "Bodge" doesn't mean the same thing at all.  You're probably thinking
>> of "botch", which means (v) to screw something up, or (n) something
>> which is screwed up.  "Kludge" means to make something work, but in an
>> inelegant or clumsy fashion.  "Bodge", however, means to adjust or
>> adapt something carefully to fit, perhaps in a way not originally
>> intended; "bodgers" were originally people who did the final fitting 
>> of
>> parts to machines and the like.
>
> From watching JunkYard Wars, or Scrap Heap Challenge as it is called 
> in the UK, I thought Bodge was about the same as kludge, too.

My usage (remember I lived in the UK when I was young) would be that a 
bodge would be a crude, inelegant, possibly temporary, fix where as a 
kludge is a more elegant work around for a problem.

Huw Davies           | e-mail: Huw.Davies at kerberos.davies.net.au
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