- patch (1)
- "piece of cloth used to mend another material," late 14c., of obscure origin, perhaps a variant of pece, pieche, from O.N.Fr. pieche (see piece), or from an unrecorded O.E. word. The verb is mid-15c., from the noun; electronics sense of "to connect temporarily" is attested from 1923. Phrase not a patch on "nowhere near as good as" is from 1860.
- patch (2)
- "fool, clown," 1549, perhaps from It. pazzo "fool," which is possibly from O.H.G. barzjan "to rave." Form perhaps infl. by folk-etymology from patch (1), on notion of a fool's patched garb.