fudge

pronunciation

How to pronounce fudge in British English: UK [fʌdʒ] word uk audio image

How to pronounce fudge in American English: US [fʌdʒ] word us audio image

Noun:

soft creamy candy
Verb:

fake or falsify
avoid or try to avoid fulfilling, answering, or performing (duties, questions, or issues)

Word Origin

fudge: fudge: [17] Fudge the verb, ‘evade’, probably comes from an earlier fadge, which meant ‘fake, deceive’, and hence ‘adjust, fit’, and this in turn probably goes back to a Middle English noun fage ‘deceit’ – but where fage came from is not clear. Fudge as the name of a type of toffee, which is first recorded in the late 19th century, may be a different use of the same word – perhaps originally ‘toffee “cooked up” or “bodged up” in an impromptu manner’.

fudge (n.2): "nonsense, rubbish," (1791), earlier and more usually as a contemptuous interjection, "lies! nonsense!" Probably a natural extension from fudge (v.) "put together clumsily or dishonestly," q.v. But Farmer suggests provincial French fuche, feuche, "an exclamation of contempt from Low German futsch = begone."

fudge (v.): "put together clumsily or dishonestly," by 1771 (perhaps from 17c.); perhaps an alteration of fadge "make suit, fit" (1570s), a verb of unknown origin. The verb fudge later had an especial association with sailors and log books. The traditional story of the origin of the interjection fudge "lies! nonsense!" (1766; see fudge (n.2)) traces it to a sailor's retort to anything considered lies or nonsense, from Captain Fudge, "who always brought home his owners a good cargo of lies" [Isaac Disraeli, 1791, citing a pamphlet from 1700]. It seems there really was a late 17c. Captain Fudge, called "Lying Fudge," and perhaps his name reinforced this form of fadge in the sense of "contrive without the necessary materials." The surname is from Fuche, a pet form of the masc. proper name Fulcher, from Germanic and meaning literally "people-army."

fudge (n.1): type of confection, 1895, American English, apparently a word first used among students at women's colleges; perhaps a special use from fudge (v.) or its noun derivative, via the notion of "insubstantial" or of something "faked-up" on the spot. The verb was used in school slang, and compare fudge (n.) "a made-up story" (1797). 'He lies,' answered Lord Etherington, 'so far as he pretends I know of such papers. I consider the whole story as froth -- foam, fudge, or whatever is most unsubstantial. ...' [Scott, "St. Ronan's Well," 1823]

2. Just on that one four-block main street , there are over 10 fudge shops !

3. Gendler notes that the belief here is : the bedpan is clean , the fudge is fudge , the gun is empty .

5. But now something of a synthesis ( the conservatives say a fudge ) seems to be emerging .