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Monday, January 28, 2013

Knack Pronunciation Guide: Kludge (as in Fudge)





A SolderSmoke listener (who will remain unnamed) recently corrected me on my pronunciation of an important Knack-related word:  Kludge.   I kludge as in fudge or judge.  He said it should be Kluge as in stooge.  I think we need a ruling her from our etymologist Steve Silverman.   Steve? 

I grew up listening to the 75 meter AM Northeast USA gang.  They said Kludge as in stooge, so I hope we stick with that.  

Wiki has an intereting (and seemingly endless) discussion on this topic: 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kludge

Excerpts:


 'An ill-assorted collection of poorly-matching parts, forming a distressing whole' 

"There is a certain, indefinable, masochistic finesse that must go into true Kludge building. The professional can spot it instantly. The amateur may readily presume that "that's the way computers are." 

"The result of this history is a tangle. Many younger U.S. hackers pronounce the word as /klooj/ but spell it, incorrectly for its meaning and pronunciation, as 'kludge'. … British hackers mostly learned /kluhj/ orally, use it in a restricted negative sense and are at least consistent. European hackers have mostly learned the word from written American sources and tend to pronounce it /kluhj/ but use the wider American meaning! Some observers consider this mess appropriate in view of the word's meaning."

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3 comments:

  1. Never heard it other than as: 'klooj'.

    And I've always taken it as the 2nd definition in the Hacker's Dictionary: "2. A clever programming trick intended to solve a particular nasty case in an efficient, if not clear, manner."

    Leave out 'programming', and you have a universal truth.

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  3. https://plus.google.com/communities/118063927587926627177#114032640816757126398/posts

    scroll down to

    Inductophobia - a neologism for fear of winding coils
    ----------------------

    Klooge it is. See the link above for the another big problem in the radio world. Inductorphobia

    Thanks guys
    Gary Jarson

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