kludge

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The Word of the Day for June 13 is:

kludge   \KLOOJ\   noun 
     : a system and especially a computer system made up of poorly matched 
components 

Example sentence:
     "The original satellite contrivance was the asynchronous satellite 
downlink with a phone connection uplink. This was doomed to fail because it was 
a kludge." (John C. Dvorak, _Boardwatch Magazine_, February 2002)

Did you know?
     The first recorded use of the word "kludge" is attributed to Jackson W. 
Granholm, who defined the word in a 1962 issue of the magazine _Datamation_ as: 
"an ill-assorted collection of poorly-matching parts, forming a distressing 
whole." He further explained that it was derived from the German word "klug," 
meaning "smart" or "witty." Why Granholm included a "d" in his spelling is not 
known. What we do know is that speakers of American English have agreed to keep 
it silent, making the vowel pronunciation of "kludge" reflect the pronunciation 
of German "klug" (\KLOOK\). We can also tell you that not everyone agrees with 
Granholm on the "d" matter: the spelling "kluge" is also popularly used.




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