Learn English – the etymology of ‘munge’

computingetymologyslangterminology

My own brief investigation into the etymology of munge yielded the following entry from The New Hacker's Dictionary:

  1. [derogatory] To imperfectly transform information.
  2. A comprehensive rewrite of a routine, data structure or the whole program.
  3. To modify data in some way the speaker doesn't need to go into right now or cannot describe succinctly (compare mumble).

This term is often confused with mung, which probably was derived from it. However, it also appears the word `munge' was in common use in Scotland in the 1940s, and in Yorkshire in the 1950s, as a verb, meaning to munch up into a masticated mess, and as a noun, meaning the result of munging something up (the parallel with the kluge/ kludge pair is amusing).

It would be very interesting if someone were able to find a connection between the computing jargon and the the Scottish munge mentioned here.

Best Answer

Munge was around in Yorkshire before 1950s, and can be seen here recorded in 1876:

Munge

to chew eagerly, or munch.

A person is said to munge, too, who murmurs surlily in an inarticulate manner.

The second usage, the surly inarticulate murmur, seems to fit your imperfectly transformed data or mumble more than the chewing does.