Talk:Bodge
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The definition says, "The term [bodge] was created after the collapse of a bridge designed by an architect named Bodge." This sounds like pure urban legend to me.
I agree, this is urban legend. "Bodgers" were originally wood turners/workers who made useful wooden tools and objects out of small pieces of waste wood. This was the use of "to bodge" in the 16th/17th & 18th C in England.
- Not so! Bodging was the use of a pole lathe to turn wood in situ, a woodcraft practised around the country, and in is particularly well-known in the High Wycombe area and it's furniture industries (The local football team are nick-named the chairboys). Rather than cut and transport the wood to a workshop, it was more efficient to take the 'workshop' to the woods. I'm not sure how this skillful activity aquired it's negative conotations; maybe a view that factory made furniture was 'better'? Markb 07:34, 4 May 2006 (UTC)
- Too right. And as for this: "Bodge is British slang for a mistake of impressive magnitude, usually made through carelessness.". Nonsense. It's never used like that: "Oh no - the bridge fell down - such a terrible bodge to befall us!" I'm changing the main meaning to "clumsy,inelegant or inadequate solution to a problem". --Farry 14:42, 28 April 2006 (UTC)
- Any workman or craftsman I've ever heard use "bodge" has meant it in the sense of a repair or construction which is done with the tools and materials to hand and which is secure enough without being particularly elegant. In my experience the terms "botch" and "bodge" are used entirely differently and are not confused. However, Collins and Oxford each give these as synonyms. I first heard about the connection with wood-turning in the early 1980s from a craftsman greenwood turner. The connection the the Tay Bridge seems to me highly suspect.--Coconino 10:44, 2 November 2007 (UTC)
This page should not be merged with kludge. The words are different, with different histories and slightly different meanings.
Bodging is the art of skillful application of blue string and gaffa tape to problems. Perhaps some mention of scrapheap challenge should be made.
This article is sadly lacking in that there is no mention (except on the discussion page) of the use of the word relating to green woodworking. There are still bodgers carrying on their traditional, skilled craft. I refer to the following for more information: http://www.worldwidewords.org/weirdwords/ww-bod1.htm http://www.bodgers.org.uk/ Ethicaljohn 20:13, 23 July 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Expand, merge or redirect
This page is a mere dictionary definition (something which Wikipedia is not). It explains the several meanings and usage of a word and includes an allegation about the possible origin (an allegation which is disputed on the Talk page, I note). I can't find any encyclopedic content on this page. The definitions belong over in Wiktionary where folks with the right skills, interests and lexical tools can more easily sort out the meanings and origins.
Options to fix the page here include:
- Expand the page with encyclopedic content - that is, content that goes well beyond the merely lexical.
- Redirect the page to a more general page on the appropriate sub-genre of slang.
- Replace the current contents with a soft-redirect to Wiktionary (usually done using the {{wi}} template).
Pending a better answer, I've implemented option 3 for now. Rossami (talk) 05:33, 7 February 2008 (UTC)
