Crufty

Origin

cruft + -y. Arose after 1959, presumably mid-1960s.

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.”

Perhaps influenced by cruddy, crusty.

Jargon File

Full definition of crufty

Adjective

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), I thought I caught him sneering at Kevin and me, in our crufty pants and shoes, but I couldn't be sure.

Derived terms

• cruftiness