Editing Kludge (section)

=== Germanic sources ===
American [[Yiddish]] speakers use {{transliteration|yi|klug}} ({{lang|yi|{{linktext|קלוג}}}}) to mean 'too smart by half', the reflected meaning of German {{lang|de|klug}} ('clever').  This may explain the idea of 'clever but clumsy and temporary', as well as the pronunciation variation from German.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.yiddishdictionaryonline.com/ |title=Yiddish Dictionary Online ייִדיש װערטערבוך אַפֿן װעב |access-date=1 August 2014 |archive-date=2 February 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060202015659/http://www.yiddishdictionaryonline.com/ |url-status=dead}}</ref> A reasonable translation of ''kludge'' into German yields {{lang|de|{{linktext|Krücke}}}} i.e. 'crutch' (cf. ''bridge'' vs. {{lang|de|{{linktext|Brücke}}}}).

Cf. German {{lang|de|{{linktext|Kloß}}}} ('dumpling', 'clod', diminutive {{lang|de|Klößchen}}), [[Low Saxon]] {{lang|nds|klut}}, {{lang|nds|klute}}, Dutch {{lang|nl|kluit}},<ref>{{cite web |title=Wörterbuchnetz – Grammatisch-Kritisches Wörterbuch der Hochdeutschen Mundart |url=http://woerterbuchnetz.de/cgi-bin/WBNetz/wbgui_py?sigle=Adelung&mode=Vernetzung&hitlist=&patternlist=&lemid=DK01431}}</ref> perhaps related to Low German diminutive {{lang|nds|klütje}} ('dumpling', 'clod'), standard [[Danish language|Danish]] {{lang|da|kludder}} ('mess, disorder, clutter') and Danish [[Jutlandic dialect|Jutland dialect]] {{lang|jut|klyt}} ('piece of bad workmanship'),.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Hansen |first=Aage |date=1926 |editor1-last=Knudsen |editor1-first=Gunnar |editor2-last=Kristensen |editor2-first=Marius |title=Et par etymologier |url=http://danskestudier.dk/materiale/1926.pdf |journal=Danske Studier |language=da |publisher=Nordisk Forlag |pages=90 |access-date=22 December 2011 |archive-date=26 April 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120426065956/http://danskestudier.dk/materiale/1926.pdf |url-status=dead}}</ref>

Arguments against the derivation from German {{lang|de|klug}}:

* There is no equivalent usage in German
* Both English pronunciations contain the [[soft G|soft ''g'']] ({{ipa|[[dʒ]]}}) not present in German
* The word emerges in English only in the 20th century
* The alleged Swedish translation, {{lang|sv|klag}}, is incorrect and would properly be spelled {{lang|sv|klok}}.

An alternative etymology<ref name="jargon">{{cite web |title=The Jargon File: kludge |author=Eric S. Raymond |url=http://www.catb.org/~esr/jargon/html/K/kludge.html |access-date=2 November 2010}}</ref> suggests that the ''kludge'' spelling in particular derives ultimately from a word in [[Scots language|Scots]] (a language closely related to English): {{lang|sco|cludge}} or {{lang|sco|cludgie/cludgey}} meaning 'toilet' (in either the room or device sense),<ref>{{cite web |title=Cludgie |work=Dictionaries of the Scots Language / Dictionars o the Scots Leid |volume=X |date=2005 |orig-date=1976 |publisher=[[University of Glasgow]] |url= https://dsl.ac.uk/entry/snd/snds2007}}</ref> with the ''kluge'' spelling possibly deriving from German, until the two terms were confused in the mid-20th century, as British and American (respectively) military slang.<ref name="jargon" /> {{crossreference|printworthy=y|(See [[#Kludge vs. kluge|below]].)}}