cruft

See also: Cruft

English[edit]

English Wikipedia has an article on:

cruft

Etymology[edit]

Circa 1959, MIT Tech Model Railroad Club.^[1] Unknown origin; possibly from Cruft Hall, built in 1915 as a gift from a donor named Harriet Otis Cruft.^[2] Cruft Hall was the radar laboratory of Harvard's physics department during the Second World War, which contained much old and unused technical equipment. Possibly blend of crust +‎ fluff, both of which may form on old abandoned things, or influenced by crud.

Pronunciation[edit]

IPA^(key): /kɹʌft/
Rhymes: -ʌft
Hyphenation: cruft

Noun[edit]

cruft (uncountable)

(computing, slang) Anything old or of inferior quality.
(computing, slang) Redundant, old or improperly written code, especially that which accumulates over time; clutter.
(film, slang) Meaningless and/or gratuitous content displayed on computer consoles in visual entertainment productions.

Derived terms[edit]

Translations[edit]

anything old or of inferior quality

Finnish: roska (fi)
German: Überflüssiges n, Krempel m, Ramsch (de) m, Schrott (de) m, Müll (de) m
Polish: rupiecie (pl) m pl, barachło (pl) n, szajs (pl) m

Russian: хлам (ru) m (xlam), барахло́ (ru) n (baraxló), ру́хлядь (ru) n (rúxljadʹ), старьё (ru) n (starʹjó) (old stuff)
Turkish: fuzuli (tr)

Verb[edit]

cruft (third-person singular simple present crufts, present participle crufting, simple past and past participle crufted)

(computing, slang) To generate cruft. (Can we add an example for this sense?)

References[edit]

^ Peter Samson, AN ABRIDGED DICTIONARY of the TMRC LANGUAGE June 1959 (with 2005 commentary)
^ “Bronze Tablet Erected in Cruft Memorial Laboratory”, in (Please provide the title of the work)‎^[1], accessed 26 November 2014

[1] Peter Samson, AN ABRIDGED DICTIONARY of the TMRC LANGUAGE June 1959 (with 2005 commentary)

[2] “Bronze Tablet Erected in Cruft Memorial Laboratory”, in (Please provide the title of the work)‎^[1], accessed 26 November 2014

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