Word of the day!

Came home, checked email, found this :

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.

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.

I'm a great fan of Merriam-Webster Online and use it everywhere I'm logged in. Am also subscribed to their word of the day but the email usually contains something I am familiar with. But crap, not this one. What a clunker! Does anyone really use it? Please, if you've seen this word in print or heard it being used, let me know.

Is American english so different? What is it different from? I mean, apart from the spelling on occasion. Unless you're a QC in which case you're in your own seperate category. But I digress.

I've been the recipient of the much hated Oh, but you speak English so well! Where did you learn it? Damn. My reply was always the standard. It's my mother tongue. I didn't have to go anywhere to learn it.


But this word. KLUDGE. lol. Somehow is sounds much nastier than it seems!