Meaning

noun a badly assembled collection of parts hastily assembled to serve some particular purpose (often used to refer to computing systems or software that has been badly put together)

originPerhaps from British military slang, possibly based on Scots word kludge or kludgie (“common toilet”), or perhaps from German klug (“clever”). Alternatively, possibly related to Polish klucz (“key, clue, main point”) and Russian ключ (ključ, “key, clue”). Alternatively, perhaps from (a form related to) Germanic words such as Dutch Low Saxon klütje (“(little) dumpling, clod”), Dutch kluit(je) or…

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0