I learn something new every day. “Bodge” – here’s the definition from Wikitionary:
Etymology 1
The term “bodge” derives from Middle English boccen, which means “to mend.”
Verb
bodge (third-person singular simple present bodges, present participle bodging, simple past and past participle bodged)
- (UK) To do a clumsy or inelegant job, usually as a temporary repair.
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- All the actions of his life are like so many things bodged in without any natural cadence or connexion at all. (A book of characters, selected from the writings of Overbury, Earle, and Butler, Thomas Overbury and John Earle, 1865)
- Some cars were neglected, others bodged to keep them running with inevitable consequences (Original Porsche 356: The Restorer’s Guide, Laurence Meredith, 2003)
- Do not be satisfied with a bodged job, set yourself professional goals and standards (The Restauration Handbook, Enric Roselló, 2007)
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Noun
bodge (plural bodges)
- (UK) A clumsy or inelegant job, usually a temporary repair.
Yeah, sounds about right. Here in the USA we have a website called “There I fixed it“, which could just as easily be named “There, I bodged it”.
Here’s what Steve McIntyre has to say about it:
==============================================================
Muir Russell and the Briffa Bodge
By Steve McIntyre
There has been some recent discussion of the Briffa bodge – an early technique to hide the decline. I had drafted a post on the topic and its handling by the Muir Russell “inquiry” in early July 2010, but did not publish the post at the time. In today’s post, I’ve slightly updated my July 2010 draft.
The term “bodge” was used for the first time in a comment (not a post) on November 8, 2009 by me here less than two weeks before Climategate). I had noticed the term “Briffa bodge” in a preprint of Briffa and Melvin 2008 2011 (see here), where it was used to describe a “very artificial correction” to Briffa’s widely used Tornetrask chronology as follows:
Briffa et al. (1992) ‘corrected’ this apparent anomaly by fitting a line through the residuals of actual minus estimated ring widths, derived from a regression using the density data over the period 501–1750 as the predictor variable, and then removing the recent apparent decline in the density chronology by adding the fitted straight line values (with the sign reversed) to the chronology data for 1750–1980. This ‘correction’ has been termed the ‘Briffa bodge’ (Stahle, personal communication)!
Bodging of the Tornetrask chronology had been discussed in much earlier CA posts – e.g. in March 2005 here and again here.
The term “bodge” also occurs in Climategate correspondence, as pointed out by Jeff Id on December 1, 2009 here.
In July 1999, Vaganov et al (Nature 1999) had attempted to explain the divergence problem in terms of later snowfall (an explanation that would seem to require caution in respect to the interpretation of earlier periods.) On July 14, 1999, Ed Cook wrote Briffa as follows:
Hi Keith,
What is your take on the Vagonov et al. paper concerning the influence of snowfall and melt timing on tree growth in Siberia? Frankly, I can’t believe it was published as is. It is amazinglly thin on details. Isn’t Sob the same site as your Polar Urals site? If so, why is the Sob response window so radically shorter then the ones you identified in your Nature paper for both density and ring width? I notice that they used Berezovo instead of Salekhard, which is much closer according to the map. Is that
because daily data were only available for the Berezovo? Also, there is no evidence for a decline or loss of temperature response in your data in the post-1950s (I assume that you didn’t apply a bodge here). This fully contradicts their claims, although I do admit that such an effect might be happening in some places.
Cheers,
Ed
See here for the response.
I raised the Briffa bodge as an issue in my submission the Briffa bodge to the Parliamentary Committee and Muir Russell as an example of “data manipulation”.
Although Muir Russell expressed disinterest in opining on the proxy issues that dominated the Climategate dossier, they reluctantly expressed an opinion on Briffa’s adjustment of the Tornetrask chronology, agreeing that the bodge was indeed “ad hoc”, but found (without giving any evidence) that there was nothing “unusual about this type of procedure”. While I presume that this reassurance was intended to comfort his audience, I wonder whether readers should in fact be comforted by this observation.
read the full post here
A great bit of the English vernacular.
Bodge – I think the common usage would be of a temporary, inappropriate or poorly executed repair or fix. As others have explained, the local bodger was the guy who you would take something to and he would come up with a working repair.
Botch on the other hand is a much more negative word – basically a screw-up.
To introduce another one, I’m originally from Yorkshire. The area didn’t have bodgers, we had fettlers. Basically the same derivation of an artisan fixer, but now the meaning tends to be someone who tinkers with things (particularly mechanical items). For example, fettling is something you might do to an old car engine or a computer program to make it work better.
In the uk a bodger is generally considered a person who carries out shoddy work using poor materials and bad workmanship.
So the Fiddlestick Team at Unreal Climate and CRU East Anglia are also bodgers.
Is there no end to their talentlessness?
We don’t need no stinkin’ bodges!
Never heard of this term before neat, another one to add to my cadge of seldom heard/used but interesting words list.
In this neck of the woods we use a slang term “jamokie”, origins unknown but it’s something that was always said of those who wound up not hiring a quality professional or using quality/right product to save a buck or believing they could do it better, and whereby things went from bad to worse, broke soon again, caused more damage than the original problem…and etc. to the point of costing much more than if it was done right in the first place.
http://onlineslangdictionary.com/definition+of/jamoke
(Doing my best not to bodge this comment and link while on my first cupa java this morning, :D.)
Bodgit and Scarper are two inept tradesmen that have operated as a pair throughout the UK for many many years. They can be found easily in the Yellow Pages, especially if you don’t get a reference prior to commencement of the work.
How these two manage to get so much work is beyond me. Must be because they have the entire UK covered!
Climategate?
No.
Climatebodge.
There, the term has been mended.
Means crooked mate, not up to scratch.
I’m surprised you didn’t come across it whilst visiting Oz.
We even had a comedy duo named Bodgey Brothers, they sold used cars.
I think the word is perfect for the hide the decline graphs.
Another phrase one could use, and this was a real person, is “Heath Robinson”. For his far-out drawings in most cases.
http://www.google.com.au/images?hl=en&biw=1142&bih=532&q=heath+robinson&wrapid=tlif130157650587511&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=univ&sa=X&ei=OnuUTcrLKYiitgeixbmHDA&ved=0CCwQsAQ
In England it is also used to describe something “put to gether in a bad way”, or as we say down here in Aus, “Shonky”.
“agreeing that the bodge was indeed “ad hoc”, but found (without giving any evidence) that there was nothing “unusual about this type of procedure”.”
So… what? Now the norm for science is if you don’t like the results, change the data? That’s science? Really?
By definition a scientist is someone who holds fast to the scientific method. By definition bodging the data is not in the scientific method, and so those who practice such are not scientists, and should not be called scientists. The title should be stripped from such fraudsters.
Glenn
Thanks for the interesting article on the word “bodge” (I wondered what it meant, though I could intuitively discern the intended meaning…).
Speaking of weather/climate “bodges” we’re preparing for up to 12 inches of snow here in the northeast…on April 1st!!
April Fools Snowstorm 2011
But..but…but…it must be global warming cuz the heat evaporates water which then mixes with cold* air and makes snow which then falls from the sky into my yard and makes big snow drifts and it all because of global warming…
/jeff masters
* Note that the cold air would have been much colder were it not for global warming [LOL!]
Treebaggers love Briffa.
There are harsher meanings of that word. E.g., “an elaborate or deceitful scheme contrived to deceive or evade.”
Seagull, the term is ‘bodge’, not ‘Bodgie’ – I remember Bodgies in New Zealand during the 1950s and ’60s. They dressed similarly to the English Teds, but with a rougher edge. DA (Duck’s Arse) haircuts a la John Travolta’s hairdo in ‘Grease’ or the Fonz’s in ‘Happy Days’, Winkle-picker shoes, drainpipe trousers, draped sports coats with enormous shoulder padding and velvet collars. Their distinctively-attired girlfriends were known as ‘Widgies’. Both genders were great exponents of rock’n’roll and would generally reserve a corner of the floor for this at Saturday-night hops. Us short-back-n-sides country boys knew better than to encroach on that space if we didn’t want a fight in the dance hall car park. The third sub-species of youth were the genuinely tough blokes who belonged to motorcycle gangs; John Travolta’s ‘Grease’ persona was pretty much a ‘Bikie’ but they didn’t dance or sing but hung about the ‘Milk Bars’ (as US soda fountain emporiums) and generally were never separated from their motorbikes – usually rattly old Brit twins – by more than the width of the footpath US sidewalk) outside the milk bar. Entertaining days and nobody suffered from identity problems! The Bodgies have mostly died out as a distinctive type, but some Bikies have morphed into Hells Angels or their imitators. Fun times!
Like most of the Brits here, I’ve known “bodge” all my life. It’s a fine and useful word which sees a lot of use, and I recommend it to all our Transatlantic friends.
Michael in Sydney – I think the “fudge factor” is much the same as what I know as
van t’Hoff’s Ratio. Multiplication by this ratio somewhere in your calculations can “improve” resilts dramatically: it is defined as –
(required result) divided by (obtained result).
It also sees a lot of use, though little publicity.
derise says:
March 31, 2011 at 3:48 am
> Same thing as a kludge.
I disagree – there seems to be an emphasis on “poorly done” whereas a kludge is more of a minimalist fix. While kludges have limits and may fail horribly when pushed too far, they can also be admirably clever and elegant.
“Chewing gum and baling wire,” done well, has saved the day in many farm tasks. “Chewing gum and baling wire,” done poorly, would be a bodge that puts hands and feet at risk.
Ney, your all wrong!
1925 Pocket Oxford Dictionary:-botch, 1. v.t. Patch, spoil by patch-work. 2. n Clumsy patch.
I suspect that bodge is a corruption of the word botch, as is does not appear in my hallowed publication!
In “she who must be obeyed” 1966 Collins National Dictionary, for bodge, it says see botch! AND for botch, it endorses the above adding “bungled work”, to bungle, blunder, spoil, Also bodge- a botcher, a bungler, botchery, botchwork, meaning clumsy workmanship, finally stating that it comes from Middle English bocchen, to patch. So it is indeed one & the same word, both delightful words.
Mind you either way they both describe it all rather nicely IMHO!
Michael in Sydney says:
March 31, 2011 at 4:12 am
I always liked the term ‘fudge factor ‘ but they are making the rules so who am I to argue?
But in this case where was the “bodge” applied, was before, after or to the “fudge factor”?
BTW, the UK nautical slang term to make a temporary emergency repair to get oneself home is a lash-up, where things are literally “lashed” together with a rope! This could not be used in this situation as the term lash suggests a sound, considered, & reasoned thought process in trying times of make-do-and-mend. A fine example of this is the marvellous ingenuity of the NASA base team during the Apollo 13 emergency, whereby the Apollo crew had to “lash” together various miscellaneous items in an effort to fit a square C02 filter to a triangular C02 filter to keep them alive.
[snip – off topic and boorish]
There used to be an excellent DIY shop near where I live (UK) which contained every conceivable bit of kit for any household repair. It was called ‘The Jolly Bodger.’
I’m not sure if an earlier poster’s “Uncle Bodger” is right? It could be, but I wonder if he’s thinking of Jerome K. Jerome’s immortal Uncle Podger? See “Three Men in a Boat” Chapter 3.
I’m sure Jerome had the English word Bodger in mind when naming this minor character in one of the funniest books ever written.
And it must be added that Muir Russell is himself no stranger to bodging. As the Civil Servant charged with managing the construction of the new Scottish Parliament building, he oversaw the cost rise from an original budget of £55 Million to an outturn cost of £431 Million on 2004.
Mr. Russell …”was widely believed to be primarily responsible for the massive overspend on the new Scottish Parliament Building and was criticised by Lord Fraser of Carmyllie’s enquiry for failing to keep the politicians informed that the expenditure was far in excess of the budget.” (Wikipedia)
A real bodge job if ever there was one.
But, like Briffa, he got away “scott free” and is now doubtless available for hire to absolutely anyone who has some whitewashing to do! Nice one, Muir!
What a delightful thread – the dog’s bollocks, in fact. Having accepted someone’s kind invitation to explore “bollocks” in Wikipedia, I discovered a new verb, “testiculate”, whose meaning had me laughing out loud. Testiculation so often accompanies the utterances of the climaterati.
Alan the Brit says:
Ney, your all wrong!
1925 Pocket Oxford Dictionary:-botch, 1. v.t. Patch, spoil by patch-work. 2. n Clumsy patch.
I suspect that bodge is a corruption of the word botch, as is does not appear in my hallowed publication!
Obviously it doesn’t appear there because it’s the Pocket Oxford Dictionary. 🙂 In my Oxford English Dictionary, the date chart cites uses of “bodge,” the noun meaning “a clumsy patch,” as early as 1589; the verb meaning “to patch or mend clumsily,” as early as 1552; the verb meaning “to do or make up in a clumsy fashion,” as early as 1578; “bodged” meaning “made up clumsily,” as early as 1519; and “bodger,” the noun meaning “one who ‘bodges,'” as early as 1552. But, yes, the provided etymology has “bodge” as an altered form of “botch.”
I see you folks across the pond need some duck tape. It works much better than paper clips and scotch tape when attempting a “bodge”. And I’ve got plenty of it, at the right price, of course.
As with most families, when your first child is born and they’re just starting to talk, strange new words are coined for various body parts and bodily functions. For reasons too complicated to go into here the act of having a bowel movement went through several iterations and transmogrifications until it became known by all as “bodge”. As in taking a “bodge”. Or, Mom, Mom! I did a really good bodge. Even letting our little dog Jack out in the morning usually involves, “C’mon Jack, let’s go out and do good bodge. Years later the word still applies.
When I think of the methods, data and result the warmers push for AGW it seems that our families definition of bodge and bodging is perfectly appropriate for what the IPCC, Mann, Gore, et al have done and are still doing. Yep, they’re very good at doing bodge.