kludge
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What is the definition and pronunciation of the word “kludge”?
It's the word of the day podcast for july twenty eighth. Today's word is Kluge, also pronounced kludge, and spelled K-L-U-D-G-E. Kluge is a noun. It's a haphazard or makeshift solution to a problem, and especially to a computer or programming problem.
How does the News‑Gazette example illustrate a kludge in early television technology?
Here's the word used in a sentence from the News Gazette of Champagne, Illinois. The advent of television in the nineteen forties allowed the movie industry to reconsider frame rates. Unfortunately, primitive video technology limited dramatic improvements. While the frame rate exceeded cinema, the resolution, how much information each frame actually contained, paled in comparison to thirty five millimeter film.
What are the debated origins and historical theories behind the word kludge?
Even worse, the Kluge enabling color broadcasting further degraded video quality. As long as the origins of the word kludge, also spelled K L U G E are uncertain, any attempt to pin them down will itself be a bit of a kludge, that is a makeshift solution. The writer Jackson W. Granholm, once thought to have coined the word, offered his own when he wrote in this nineteen sixty two article How to Design a Kluge, that it came from the German word klug, meaning smart or witty.
What folklore story does Agnes Nolan Underwood tell about a “kluge maker” and its possible onomatopoeic roots?
This connection is unlikely on both phonetic and semantic grounds, however, and in any event the word already existed. A decade earlier, in an article recounting military folklore acquired from ex soldiers, Agnes Nolan Underwood related a shaggy dog story about a sailor named Murgatroyd whose civilian occupation is Kluge Maker. The meaning of Kluge is withheld till the end of the tale, when the object made by Murgatroyd turns out to be the damnedest looking little thing you ever saw, wires and springs sticking out in every direction. Murgatroid then accidentally drops the object, the Kluge slipped out and went overboard, down into the ocean, and went Kluge.
How does the episode wrap up with pronunciation tips and a call to action for listeners?
This suggests a possible onomatopoeic origin for the word kludge. We note that Kluge, the Kluge spelling without the D, better reflects its pronunciation, and it rhymes with the word huge, not usually with the word fudge. But again, nothing in this life is certain but death and taxes, and these days also computer malfunctions. With your word of the day, I'm Peter Sokolowski. Visit MarionWebster dot com today for definitions, wordplay, and trending word lookups.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What is the definition and pronunciation of the word “kludge”?
0:06–0:27
2
How does the News‑Gazette example illustrate a kludge in early television technology?
0:27–0:55
3
What are the debated origins and historical theories behind the word kludge?
0:55–1:31
4
What folklore story does Agnes Nolan Underwood tell about a “kluge maker” and its possible onomatopoeic roots?
1:31–2:18
5
How does the episode wrap up with pronunciation tips and a call to action for listeners?
2:18–2:53