bug
English
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e5/Palomena_prasina%2C_Budapest%2C_Hungary_-_20101021.jpg/220px-Palomena_prasina%2C_Budapest%2C_Hungary_-_20101021.jpg)
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
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 and engineering jargon) A problem that needs fixing.
- Lua error in Module:quote at line 2566: Unrecognized value 'cited by' for type=; possible values are book,journal
- 1968 April, Popular Mechanics:
- A... leading aluminum producer claims it has worked all the bugs out of building and servicing aluminum radiators, says it hopes to have a large chunk of the radiator market by the early nineteen seventies.
- 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 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.
- (obsolete) Hobgoblin, scarecrow; anything that terrifies. [late 14th c.–early 17th. c]
- c. 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Winters Tale”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii]:
- Sir, spare your threats: / The bug which you would fright me with I seek.
- (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 or invisible image on a World Wide Web page
|
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. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked
Verb
bug (third-person singular simple present bugs, present participle bugging, simple past and past participle bugged)
- (informal, transitive) To annoy.
- Don’t bug me, I’m busy!
- (transitive) To install an electronic listening device or devices in.
- We need to know what’s going on. We’ll bug his house.
Synonyms
- See also Thesaurus:annoy
Derived terms
Translations
to annoy
|
to install an electronic listening device in
|
Further reading
Anagrams
Danish
Etymology
Noun
bug c (singular definite bugen, plural indefinite buge)
Inflection
Declension of bug
French
Alternative forms
- (computing) bogue
Etymology
Pronunciation
Noun
bug m (plural bugs)
Derived terms
Karipúna Creole French
Etymology
From French bougre (“chap, guy”)
Pronunciation
Noun
bug
- boy (young male human)
References
- 1987, Alfred W. Tobler, Dicionário Crioulo Karipúna/Português Português/Crioulo Karípúna, Summer Institute of Linguistics, page 5.
Portuguese
Etymology
Pronunciation
- Lua error in Module:parameters at line 291: Parameter 1 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value "Brazil" is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E. IPA(key): /ˈbɐɡ/, /ˈbɐ.ɡi/, /ˈbuɡ/, /ˈbu.ɡi/
Noun
bug m (plural s)
Synonyms
Derived terms
Spanish
Noun
bug m (plural bugs)
Categories:
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms derived from Proto-Germanic
- English 1-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio links
- Rhymes:English/ʌɡ
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- English colloquialisms
- American English
- en:Entomology
- English terms with usage examples
- English terms with quotations
- English informal terms
- en:Broadcasting
- en:Aviation
- English terms with obsolete senses
- en:LGBT
- en:Poker
- en:Paleontology
- English slang
- English dated terms
- English verbs
- English transitive verbs
- Danish terms derived from Old Norse
- Danish lemmas
- Danish nouns
- Danish common-gender nouns
- French terms derived from English
- French 1-syllable words
- French terms with IPA pronunciation
- French lemmas
- French nouns
- French countable nouns
- French masculine nouns
- French slang
- Karipúna Creole French terms derived from French
- Karipúna Creole French terms with IPA pronunciation
- Karipúna Creole French lemmas
- Karipúna Creole French nouns
- kmv:Children
- kmv:Male
- kmv:People
- Portuguese terms borrowed from English
- Portuguese terms derived from English
- Portuguese 1-syllable words
- Portuguese 2-syllable words
- Portuguese terms with IPA pronunciation
- Portuguese lemmas
- Portuguese nouns
- Portuguese countable nouns
- Portuguese masculine nouns
- pt:Computing
- Portuguese slang
- Spanish lemmas
- Spanish nouns
- Spanish countable nouns
- Spanish masculine nouns
- es:Computing