Reader question:

What is stopgap, as in "a stopgap measure"?

My comments:

A look up any dictionary will yield you something, but let me find a way for you to remember it.

There's a leak in the pipe in the garden. Instead of replacing the pipe with a new one, you fetch some tape to paper over the crack. The crack in the pipe is a "gap", make the tape a "stop" and you have a stopgap – something to "stop" a "gap".

Taping over the leak may work for now but you know it's still a leaking pipe. Some time in future, perhaps soon, it'll start leaking water again. So therefore, the tape is a stopgap measure, a measure that is temporary, expedient¹ and very probably not the best solution, or substitute to be exact.

Stopgap reminds me of makeshift, a word obviously formed from "make" and "shift". Shift means change. Makeshift hence means to make a change and make it work.

It may not work the best but it will do under the circumstances, for lack of a better alternative if you will. Think of the term "make do". It means to make do – make something work, manage with what's available right now. Same thing: it probably won't work (that well), but you make it work nevertheless.

In short, both stopgap and makeshift means a substitute you make do with on a temporary basis (to be replaced if and when a better alternative is found).

And according to my research, stopgap has been in the English language since 1684, makeshift since 1683.

Make do? This is "attested² from 1899", according to Online Etymology³ Dictionary, but I suspect the idea has been there for ever.

Anyways, here are examples of "stopgap" and "makeshift" in the news.

Stopgap example 1:

Once dismissed asa stopgap figure, al-Maliki has developed into a national leader, threatening the Supreme⁴ Council's ambition to win the top job after next year's elections.

- Shiite split could complicate⁵ US security pact⁶, AP, October 16, 2008.

Example 2:

It is almost as if Paulson and Bernanke have created a plan that will see them through the next few months without concern for the long-term effects of their actions. "I regard this as nothing more than a stopgap measure to get us through the election," says S&P's Wyss.

- $700bn won't save America from a slump⁷, The Observer, September 28, 2008.

Makeshift example 1:

"It was apparent that the murder suspect, alone in his cell, had used a piece of his shirt as a makeshift ligature around his neck," Charlie Beck, chief of detectives for the Los Angeles Police Department, told a news conference at police headquarters Saturday.

- Japanese businessman's murder case ends in his suicide, LA Daily News, October 11, 2008.

Example 2:

Monday was International Car Free Day. Many cities in China called residents to choose public transportation means instead of driving their own cars. Beijing was no exemption⁸. It just stopped banning vehicles with odd and even-numbered license⁹ plates on alternate days from Sunday, but discussion aroused by the ban is not over. Was it the only way to ease Beijing's traffic jam or only a makeshift solution which will make things worse?

- CRI News, September 22, 2008.