Elon Musk Is The 'Boondoggle' Buster

In the 1920s, Robert Link, an Eagle Scout and later a scoutmaster for the Boy Scouts of America, apparently coined the word to name the braided leather cords made and worn by scouts as a neckerchief slide. The word came to prominence when such a boondoggle was presented to the Prince of Wales at the 1929 World Jamboree, and it's been with us ever since. Over time, it developed the additional sense describing a wasteful or impractical project.

The political usage arose from a 1935 New York Times report that more than $3 million had been spent on recreational activities for the jobless as part of FDR’s New Deal. A boondoggle became known as a project that is considered a useless waste of both time and money, yet is often continued due to extraneous policy or political motivations.