bodge

See also: 'Bodge

English

WOTD – 27 November 2015

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bɒdʒ/

• Audio (AU):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɒdʒ

Etymology 1

From Middle English bocchen (“to mend, patch up, repair”), of uncertain origin. Perhaps from Middle Dutch botsen, butsen, boetsen (“to repair, patch”) (Dutch botsen (“to strike, beat, knock together”)), related to Old High German bōzan (“to beat”), See beat; or perhaps from Old English bōtettan (“to improve, repair”), Old English bōtian (“to get better”). More at boot.

Verb

bodge (third-person singular simple present bodges, present participle bodging, simple past and past participle bodged)

1. (British) To do a clumsy or inelegant job, usually as a temporary repair; mend, patch up, repair.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:kludge

   • 1865, A book of characters, selected from the writings of Overbury, Earle, and Butler, Thomas Overbury and John Earle:

     All the actions of his life are like so many things bodged in without any natural cadence or connexion at all.

   • 2003, Laurence Meredith, Original Porsche 356: The Restorer's Guide:

     Some cars were neglected, others bodged to keep them running with inevitable consequences

   • 2007, Enric Roselló, The Restoration Handbook:

     Do not be satisfied with a bodged job, set yourself professional goals and standards

2. To work green wood using traditional country methods; to perform the craft of a bodger.
   • 1978, John Geraint Jenkins, Traditional Country Craftsmen, →ISBN, page 16:

     His father, grandfather and countless generations before him had obtained a living from chair bodging in the solitude of the beech glades.

   • 1989 May–June, John Birchard, “The artful bodger”, in American Woodworker, page 41:

     "Bodging is more a curiosity than a valid craft these days," says Don. "But experience in low-tech woodworking is also a good way for the beginner to start getting a feel for turning without having to make a huge investment in a modern lathe."

   • 2000, Beth Robinson Bosk, The New Settler Interviews: Boogie at the Brink, →ISBN:

     Which is no different than my chair bodging, in that I can go out into the woodland and do my work without having to be tied in to a village shop situation.

Translations

do a clumsy or inelegant job — see botch

Noun

bodge (plural bodges)

1. A clumsy or inelegant job, usually a temporary repair; a patch, a repair.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:workaround

   • 2011 February 22, Cory Doctorow, “Google App to help locate people in Christchurch quake”, in BoingBoing‎^[1], retrieved 2012-02-05:

     The simple tool above provides a low-tech bodge to help people locate missing friends and family in Christchurch following today's terrible earthquake.

Derived terms

• bodge job

Translations

clumsy or inelegant job — see botch

Related terms

• bodger
• botch

Etymology 2

Unknown

Noun

bodge (plural bodges)

1. (historical) The water in which a smith would quench items heated in a forge.
2. (South East England) A four-wheeled handcart used for transporting goods. Also, a homemade go-cart.

Adjective

bodge (comparative more bodge, superlative most bodge)

1. (slang, Northern Ireland) Insane, off the rails.

Anagrams

• bedog, begod