bug

Etymology

First attested in this form around 1620 (referring to a bedbug), from earlier bugge (“beetle”), a conflation of two words:

1. Middle English bugge (“scarecrow, hobgoblin”), from Proto-Germanic *bugja- (“swollen up, thick”) (compare Norwegian bugge (“big man”), dialectal Low German Bögge (“goblin”, “snot”)
2. Middle English budde (“beetle”), from Old English budda (see scearnbudda (“dung beetle”)), from Proto-Germanic *buddô, *buzdô (compare Low German Budde (“louse, grub”), Norwegian budda (“newborn domestic animal”)). More at bud.

The term is used to refer to technical errors and problems at least as early as the 19th century, predating the commonly known story of a moth being caught in a computer.

Pronunciation

• enPR: bŭg, IPA^(key): /bʌɡ/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʌɡ
• Hyphenation: bug

Noun

bug (plural bugs)

1. (colloquial, chiefly US) Any insect, arachnid, myriapod or entognath.
2. (entomology) An insect of the order Hemiptera (the "true bugs").
3. (colloquial) Any insect, arachnid, or other terrestrial arthropod that is a pest.

   These flies are a bother. I’ll get some bug spray and kill them.

4. Any of various species of marine or freshwater crustaceans; e.g. a Morton Bay bug, mudbug.
5. (chiefly computing) A problem that needs fixing.

   Synonyms: defect, glitch

   The software bug led the computer to calculate 2 plus 2 as 5.

   • 1878, Thomas P. Hughes, quoting Thomas Edison, Edison to Puskas, 13 November 1878, Edison papers, quoted in American Genesis: A History of the American Genius for Invention, Edison National Laboratory, U.S. National Park Service, West Orange, N.J.: Penguin Books, published 1989, →ISBN, page 75:

     I have the right principle and am on the right track, but time, hard work and some good luck are necessary too. It has been just so in all of my inventions. The first step is an intuition, and comes with a burst, then difficulties arise -- this thing gives out and [it is] then that "Bugs" -- as such little faults and difficulties are called -- show themselves and months of intense watching, study and labor are requisite before commercial success or failure is certainly reached.

6. A contagious illness; a bacterium or virus causing it

   He’s got the flu bug.

7. An enthusiasm for something; an obsession

   I think he’s a gold bug, he has over 10,000 ounces in storage.

   to catch the skiing bug

8. A concealed electronic eavesdropping or intercept device

   We installed a bug in her telephone.

9. A small and and usually invisible file (traditionally a single-pixel image) on a World Wide Web page, primarily used to track users.

   He suspected the image was a Web bug used for determining who was visiting the site.

10. (broadcasting) A small, usually transparent or translucent image placed in a corner of a television program to indicate what network or cable channel is televising it

    Channel 4's bug distracted Jim from his favorite show.

11. (aviation) A manually positioned marker in flight instruments.
12. A semi-automated telegraph key.
    • 1938, Paul Gallico, Farewell to Sport, page 257:

      At this point your telegraph operator, sitting at your right, goes "Ticky-tick-tickety-de-tick-tick," with his bug, as he calls his transmitter, and looks at you expectantly.

    • 1942, Arthur Reinhold Nilson, Radio Code Manual, page 134:

      As far as the dashes are concerned, the bug is the same in operation as any regular key would be if it were turned up on edge instead of sitting flat on the desk.

    • 1986, E. L. Doctorow, World's Fair, page 282:

      I was a very good radio operator. I bought my own bug. That's what the telegraph key in its modern form was called. It was semiautomatic.

13. (obsolete) A bugbear; anything that terrifies.

    Synonyms: bog, bogey, bogle, boggle, boggard, bugbear

    • Shakespeare

      Sir, spare your threats: / The bug which you would fright me with I seek.

14. (chiefly LGBT, "the bug") HIV.
15. (poker) A limited form of wild card in some variants of poker.
16. (paleontology, slang) A trilobite.
    • 2007, Kirk Johnson, Cruisin' the Fossil Freeway, p. 174:

      We asked Harris if he had any recommendations about seeing the famous trilobite digs. He said we should just drive out to his claim in the Wheeler Quadrangle, and it was just fine with him if we dug a few bugs.

17. (petroleum industry, slang, dated) Synonym of oil bug
    • July 1933, Popular Science:

      Now, only three years later, most of the major oil companies maintain staffs of these men who examine cores, classify the various types of "bugs," or foraminifera, and make charts showing the depths at which each of the hundreds of types is found.

18. (slang, horse-racing) A young apprentice jockey.

Verb

bug (third-person singular simple present bugs, present participle bugging, simple past and past participle bugged)

1. (informal, transitive) To annoy.

   Don’t bug me, I’m busy!

2. (transitive) To install an electronic listening device or devices in.

   We need to know what’s going on. We’ll bug his house.

Further reading

• Hemiptera on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Hemiptera on Wikispecies.Wikispecies
• Hemiptera on Wikimedia Commons.Wikimedia Commons
• Software bug on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• gub

Etymology

From Old Norse búkr.

Noun

bug c (singular definite bugen, plural indefinite buge)

1. stomach
2. abdomen
3. belly

Alternative forms

• (computing) bogue

Etymology

English bug

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bœɡ/, /bɔɡ/

Noun

bug m (plural bugs)

1. (slang) A bug (a problem, especially in computing)

Derived terms

• buguer

Etymology

From French bougre (“chap, guy”)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈbuɡ/

Noun

bug

1. boy (young male human)

References

• 1987, Alfred W. Tobler, Dicionário Crioulo Karipúna/Português Português/Crioulo Karípúna, Summer Institute of Linguistics, page 5.

Etymology

Borrowed from English bug.

Pronunciation

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˈbɐɡ/, /ˈbɐ.ɡi/

Noun

bug m (plural bugs)

1. (computing) bug (error in a program’s functioning)
2. (slang) anything causing unusual behaviour