crufty

English

Etymology

cruft +‎ -y. Arose after 1959, presumably mid-1960s.[1] Perhaps influenced by cruddy, crusty.[2]

Adjective

crufty (comparative cruftier, superlative cruftiest)

  1. (computing, informal) Relating to or containing cruft.
  2. (computing, informal) Poorly built and overly-complex, and unpleasant.
  3. Unrefined, dirty or worn.
    • 1972, Jan Carew, The wild coast:
      All these years I been living with you we en't go nowhere. You want a beast of burden, not a woman. Because you is a big, crufty, niggerman with the strength of an ox and a mind big and empty like midday sky you think me is the same.
    • 2013, Richard Bowker, The Portal (An Alternative History Novel), page 1614174636:
      I thought I caught him sneering at Kevin and me, in our crufty pants and shoes, but I couldn't be sure.

Derived terms

References
  1. Peter Samson, AN ABRIDGED DICTIONARY of the TMRC LANGUAGE June 1959 (with 2005 commentary), “The dictionary has no definition for 'crufty,' a word I didn't hear until some years later.”
  2. “crufty” in Eric S[teven] Raymond, editor, The Jargon File, version 4.4.7, 29 December 2003.
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