# I always thought “borked” was derived from “borken”, the early 1960s era
humorous mistyping of…

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I always thought “borked” was derived from “borken”, [the early 1960s era
humorous mistyping of “broken” within the MIT hacker
community](http://catb.org/esr/jargon/html/B/borken.html). (While ESR doesn’t
give a date or etymology, this entry goes back to the original Hacker’s
Dictionary, which was compiled in the early 60s.) I never knew about this
second, politically-charged meaning!

By [John Ohno](https://medium.com/@enkiv2) on [January 13,
2017](https://medium.com/p/2615ff378118).

[Canonical link](https://medium.com/@enkiv2/i-always-thought-borked-was-
derived-from-borken-the-early-1960s-era-humorous-mistyping-of-2615ff378118)

Exported from [Medium](https://medium.com) on September 18, 2020.