bug
English
Etymology
First attested in this form around 1620 (referring to a bedbug), from earlier bugge (“beetle”), a conflation of two words:
- Middle English bugge (“scarecrow, hobgoblin”), from Proto-Germanic *bugja- (“swollen up, thick”) (compare Norwegian bugge (“big man”), dialectal Low German Bögge (“goblin”, “snot”)
- 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)
- (colloquial, US) Any insect, arachnid, myriapod or entognath.
- (entomology) An insect of the order Hemiptera (the "true bugs").
- (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.
- Any of various species of marine or freshwater crustaceans; e.g. a Morton Bay bug, mudbug.
- (chiefly computing) A problem that needs fixing.
- 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.
- A contagious illness; a bacterium or virus causing it
- He’s got the flu bug.
- (informal) An enthusiasm for something; an obsession
- I think he’s a gold bug: he has over 10,000 ounces in storage.
- I caught the skiing bug while staying in the Alps.
- (informal) A keen enthusiast or hobbyist.
- 1961, Kiplinger's Personal Finance (volume 15, number 12, page 34)
- Incidentally, the camera manufacturers have had a new worry—that they might "kill off the hobby," as U.S. Camera magazine put it recently—by automating to the point that real camera bugs would feel no challenge.
- 1961, Kiplinger's Personal Finance (volume 15, number 12, page 34)
- A concealed electronic eavesdropping or intercept device
- We installed a bug in her telephone.
- 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.
- (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.
- (aviation) A manually positioned marker in flight instruments.
- 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.
- 1938, Paul Gallico, Farewell to Sport, page 257:
- (obsolete) Hobgoblin, scarecrow; anything that terrifies. [late 14th c.–early 17th. c]
- Shakespeare
- Sir, spare your threats: / The bug which you would fright me with I seek.
- Shakespeare
- (chiefly LGBT, "the bug") HIV.
- (poker) A limited form of wild card in some variants of poker.
- (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.
- 2007, Kirk Johnson, Cruisin' the Fossil Freeway, p. 174:
- (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.
- July 1933, Popular Science:
- (slang, horse-racing) A young apprentice jockey.
Usage notes
- Adjectives often applied to “bug”: major, minor, serious, critical, nasty, annoying, important, strange, stupid, flying, silly.
Synonyms
- See also Thesaurus:defect
Derived terms
Translations
an insect of the order Hemiptera
|
|
a colloquial name for insect
|
|
various species of marine crustaceans
|
problem that needs fixing (especially in computing)
|
|
contagious illness, bacteria, virus
|
an enthusiasm for something
an electronic listening device
|
|
a small image placed in a corner of a television program
manually positioned marker in flight instruments
a semi-automated telegraph key
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.
Verb
bug (third-person singular simple present bugs, present participle bugging, simple past and past participle bugged)
Synonyms
- See also Thesaurus:annoy
Derived terms
Translations
to annoy
|
to install an electronic listening device in
|
Further reading
Danish
Karipúna Creole French
FWOTD – 17 February 2014
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈbuɡ/
References
- 1987, Alfred W. Tobler, Dicionário Crioulo Karipúna/Português Português/Crioulo Karípúna, Summer Institute of Linguistics, page 5.
Portuguese
Pronunciation
- (Brazil) IPA(key): /ˈbɐɡ/, /ˈbɐ.ɡi/, /ˈbuɡ/, /ˈbu.ɡi/
Noun
bug m (plural bugs)
This article is issued from Wiktionary. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.