An innocent Boy Scout craft term became a political weapon when New Deal critics discovered that relief workers were being paid to make braided lanyards.
Work or activity that is wasteful or pointless but gives the appearance of having value. Also a braided leather or cord craft project.
Coined by American scoutmaster Robert Link around 1925 for braided leather lanyards made as a craft activity. Extended to mean wasteful government spending during the New Deal era of the 1930s when critics called make-work relief projects boondoggles Key roots: boondoggle (American English: "coined word, no prior etymology").
Boondoggle was innocently coined by scoutmaster Robert Link around 1925 for the braided leather lanyards Boy Scouts made as a camping craft — he claimed to have simply made up the word. Its transformation into a political attack term happened during the New Deal, when critics seized on a 1935 report that relief workers in New York City were being paid to make "boondoggles" (craft projects). The New York Times headline turned