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6 definitions found
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:
Bug \Bug\ (b[u^]g), n. [OE. bugge, fr. W. bwg, bwgan, hobgoblin,
scarecrow, bugbear. Cf. {Bogey}, {Boggle}.]
1. A bugbear; anything which terrifies. [Obs.]
[1913 Webster]
Sir, spare your threats:
The bug which you would fright me with I seek.
--Shak.
[1913 Webster]
2. (Zool.) A general name applied to various insects
belonging to the Hemiptera; as, the squash bug; the chinch
bug, etc.
[1913 Webster]
3. (Zool.) An insect of the genus {Cimex}, especially the
bedbug ({Cimex lectularius}). See {Bedbug}.
[1913 Webster]
4. (Zool.) One of various species of Coleoptera; as, the
ladybug; potato bug, etc.; loosely, any beetle.
[1913 Webster]
5. (Zool.) One of certain kinds of Crustacea; as, the sow
bug; pill bug; bait bug; salve bug, etc.
[1913 Webster]
Note: According to popular usage in England and among
housekeepers in America around 1900, bug, when not
joined with some qualifying word, was used specifically
for {bedbug}. As a general term it is now used very
loosely in America as a colloquial term to mean any
small crawling thing, such as an insect or arachnid,
and was formerly used still more loosely in England.
"God's rare workmanship in the ant, the poorest bug
that creeps." --Rogers (--Naaman). "This bug with
gilded wings." --Pope.
[1913 Webster +PJC]
6. (Computers) An error in the coding of a computer program,
especially one causing the program to malfunction or fail.
See, for example, {year 2000 bug}. "That's not a bug, it's
a feature!"
[PJC]
7. Any unexpected defect or flaw, such as in a machine or a
plan.
[PJC]
8. A hidden electronic listening device, used to hear or
record conversations surreptitiously.
[PJC]
9. An infectious microorganism; a germ[4]. [Colloq.]
[PJC]
10. An undiagnosed illness, usually mild, believed to be
caused by an infectious organism. [Colloq.]
Note: In some communities in the 1990's, the incidence of
AIDS is high and AIDS is referred to colloquially as
"the bug".
[PJC]
11. An enthusiast; -- used mostly in combination, as a camera
bug. [Colloq.]
[PJC]
{Bait bug}. See under {Bait}.
{Bug word}, swaggering or threatening language. [Obs.]
--Beau. & Fl.
[1913 Webster]
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:
Bug \Bug\ (b[u^]g), v. t.
to {annoy}; to bother or pester.
[PJC] Bugaboo
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
bug
n 1: general term for any insect or similar creeping or crawling
invertebrate
2: a fault or defect in a system or machine [syn: {glitch}]
3: a small hidden microphone; for listening secretly
4: insects with sucking mouthparts and forewings thickened and
leathery at the base; usually show incomplete
metamorphosis [syn: {hemipterous insect}, {hemipteran}, {hemipteron}]
5: a minute life form (especially a disease-causing bacterium);
the term is not in technical use [syn: {microbe}, {germ}]
v 1: annoy persistently; "The children teased the boy because of
his stammer" [syn: {tease}, {badger}, {pester}, {beleaguer}]
2: tap a telephone or telegraph wire to get information; "The
FBI was tapping the phone line of the suspected spy"; "Is
this hotel room bugged?" [syn: {wiretap}, {tap}, {intercept}]
[also: {bugging}, {bugged}]
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
381 Moby Thesaurus words for "bug":
ALGOL, COBOL, FORTRAN, Mumbo Jumbo, abrade, addict, addle,
addle the wits, adenovirus, aerobe, aerobic bacteria, aficionado,
aggravate, agitate, alphabetic data, alphanumeric code, amoeba,
anaerobe, anaerobic bacteria, angular data, annoy, apply pressure,
arachnid, arthropod, assembler, attend, attend to, auscultate,
bacillus, bacteria, bacterium, badger, bag, bait, ball up, balloon,
be all ears, be at, becloud, bedazzle, bedevil, beetle, befuddle,
belly, belly out, bend an ear, beset, besiege, bewilder, bigot,
bilge, billow, binary digit, binary scale, binary system, bit,
blandish, blemish, bogey, bogeyman, boggart, bogle, booger,
boogerman, boogeyman, bother, bouge, bristle, brown off, buff,
bugaboo, bugbear, bugger, bulge, bullyrag, burn up, buttonhole,
byte, cajole, carp at, case, catch, caterpillar, centipede, chafe,
chilopod, chivy, cloud, coax, coccus, cock the ears, collector,
command pulses, commands, compiler, computer code,
computer language, computer program, confuse, control signals,
controlled quantity, convulse, correcting signals, crack, crank,
craze, crazy fancy, daddy longlegs, data, daze, dazzle, defect,
defection, deficiency, demon, devil, devotee, dilate, diplopod,
discombobulate, discomfit, discompose, disconcert,
disease-producing microorganism, disorganize, disorient, distemper,
distend, distract, disturb, dog, drawback, dun, eager beaver,
eavesdrop, echovirus, embarrass, embroil, energumen, entangle,
enterovirus, enthusiasm, enthusiast, error, error signals,
examine by ear, exasperate, exercise, exert pressure, faddist,
failing, failure, fan, fanatic, fanatico, fascination, fash, fault,
faute, fee-faw-fum, feedback pulses, feedback signals, fiend,
film data, filterable virus, flaw, flummox, flurry, fluster,
flutter, fly, fog, foible, frailty, freak, fret, fret at, fuddle,
fungus, furor, furore, fuss, fuss at, gall, germ, get,
give attention, give audience to, give ear, goggle,
gram-negative bacteria, gram-positive bacteria, great one for,
gripe, harass, hark, harry, harvestman, hassle, hear, hear out,
hearken, heckle, hector, heed, henpeck, hexadecimal system,
hexapod, hobbyist, hole, hound, imperfection, importune,
inadequacy, infatuate, infatuation, infirmity, information,
input data, input quantity, insect, instructions, intercept, irk,
kink, larva, lend an ear, listen, listen at, listen in, listen to,
little problem, lunatic fringe, machine language, maggot,
make a reconnaissance, mania, maniac, manic-depressive psychosis,
maze, message, microbe, microorganism, microphone, miff, mike,
millepede, millipede, mist, mite, mix up, moider, mold, molest,
monomaniac, muddle, multiple messages, nag, nag at, needle, nettle,
nibble at, noise, nonfilterable virus, nudzh, numeric data, nut,
nymph, octal system, oscillograph data, output data,
output quantity, passion, pathogen, peck at, peep, peeve, perplex,
persecute, perturb, pester, pick at, pick on, picornavirus, pique,
plague, play, play the spy, pluck the beard, ply, polar data,
pooch, pop, pother, pouch, pout, press, pressure, problem,
protozoa, protozoon, provoke, psych, punch-card data, pursuer,
push, put out, put under surveillance, radiomicrophone, rage,
raise hell, random data, rattle, reconnoiter, rectangular data,
reference quantity, reovirus, rhapsodist, rhinovirus, rickettsia,
ride, rift, rile, roil, round out, ruffle, ruly English, scorpion,
scout, scout out, shortcoming, signals, single messages, sit in on,
snag, something missing, spider, spirillum, spirochete, spook,
spore, spy, spy out, stake out, staphylococcus, streptococcus,
sucker for, swell, swell out, taint, tap, tarantula, tease, throw,
throw into confusion, tick, torment, trouble, try the patience,
trypanosome, tweak the nose, unorganized data, unsettle, upset,
urge, vex, vibrio, virus, visible-speech data, visionary,
vulnerable place, watch, weak link, weak point, weakness, wheedle,
wiretap, work on, worry, yap at, zealot
From Jargon File (4.3.1, 29 Jun 2001) [jargon]:
bug n. An unwanted and unintended property of a program or piece of
hardware, esp. one that causes it to malfunction. Antonym of {feature}.
Examples: "There's a bug in the editor: it writes things out backwards."
"The system crashed because of a hardware bug." "Fred is a winner, but
he has a few bugs" (i.e., Fred is a good guy, but he has a few
personality problems).
Historical note: Admiral Grace Hopper (an early computing pioneer
better known for inventing {COBOL}) liked to tell a story in which a
technician solved a {glitch} in the Harvard Mark II machine by pulling
an actual insect out from between the contacts of one of its relays, and
she subsequently promulgated {bug} in its hackish sense as a joke about
the incident (though, as she was careful to admit, she was not there
when it happened). For many years the logbook associated with the
incident and the actual bug in question (a moth) sat in a display case
at the Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC). The entire story, with a
picture of the logbook and the moth taped into it, is recorded in the
"Annals of the History of Computing", Vol. 3, No. 3 (July 1981), pp.
285-286.
The text of the log entry (from September 9, 1947), reads "1545 Relay
#70 Panel F (moth) in relay. First actual case of bug being found". This
wording establishes that the term was already in use at the time in its
current specific sense -- and Hopper herself reports that the term `bug'
was regularly applied to problems in radar electronics during WWII.
Indeed, the use of `bug' to mean an industrial defect was already
established in Thomas Edison's time, and a more specific and rather
modern use can be found in an electrical handbook from 1896 ("Hawkin's
New Catechism of Electricity", Theo. Audel & Co.) which says: "The term
`bug' is used to a limited extent to designate any fault or trouble in
the connections or working of electric apparatus." It further notes that
the term is "said to have originated in quadruplex telegraphy and have
been transferred to all electric apparatus."
The latter observation may explain a common folk etymology of the
term; that it came from telephone company usage, in which "bugs in a
telephone cable" were blamed for noisy lines. Though this derivation
seems to be mistaken, it may well be a distorted memory of a joke first
current among _telegraph_ operators more than a century ago!
Or perhaps not a joke. Historians of the field inform us that the term
"bug" was regularly used in the early days of telegraphy to refer to a
variety of semi-automatic telegraphy keyers that would send a string of
dots if you held them down. In fact, the Vibroplex keyers (which were
among the most common of this type) even had a graphic of a beetle on
them (and still do)! While the ability to send repeated dots
automatically was very useful for professional morse code operators,
these were also significantly trickier to use than the older manual
keyers, and it could take some practice to ensure one didn't introduce
extraneous dots into the code by holding the key down a fraction too
long. In the hands of an inexperienced operator, a Vibroplex "bug" on
the line could mean that a lot of garbled Morse would soon be coming
your way.
Further, the term "bug" has long been used among radio technicians to
describe a device that converts electromagnetic field variations into
acoustic signals. It is used to trace radio interference and look for
dangerous radio emissions. Radio community usage derives from the
roach-like shape of the first versions used by 19th century physicists.
The first versions consisted of a coil of wire (roach body), with the
two wire ends sticking out and bent back to nearly touch forming a spark
gap (roach antennae). The bug is to the radio technician what the
stethoscope is to the stereotypical medical doctor. This sense is almost
certainly ancestral to modern use of "bug" for a covert monitoring
device, but may also have contributed to the use of "bug" for the
effects of radio interference itself.
Actually, use of `bug' in the general sense of a disruptive event goes
back to Shakespeare! (Henry VI, part III - Act V, Scene II: King Edward:
"So, lie thou there. Die thou; and die our fear; For Warwick was a bug
that fear'd us all.") In the first edition of Samuel Johnson's
dictionary one meaning of `bug' is "A frightful object; a walking
spectre"; this is traced to `bugbear', a Welsh term for a variety of
mythological monster which (to complete the circle) has recently been
reintroduced into the popular lexicon through fantasy role-playing
games.
In any case, in jargon the word almost never refers to insects. Here
is a plausible conversation that never actually happened:
"There is a bug in this ant farm!"
"What do you mean? I don't see any ants in it."
"That's the bug."
A careful discussion of the etymological issues can be found in a
paper by Fred R. Shapiro, 1987, "Entomology of the Computer Bug: History
and Folklore", American Speech 62(4):376-378.
[There has been a widespread myth that the original bug was moved to
the Smithsonian, and an earlier version of this entry so asserted. A
correspondent who thought to check discovered that the bug was not
there. While investigating this in late 1990, your editor discovered
that the NSWC still had the bug, but had unsuccessfully tried to get the
Smithsonian to accept it -- and that the present curator of their
History of American Technology Museum didn't know this and agreed that
it would make a worthwhile exhibit. It was moved to the Smithsonian in
mid-1991, but due to space and money constraints was not actually
exhibited for years afterwards. Thus, the process of investigating the
original-computer-bug bug fixed it in an entirely unexpected way, by
making the myth true! --ESR]
From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (27 SEP 03) [foldoc]:
bug
An unwanted and unintended property of a program
or piece of hardware, especially one that causes it to
malfunction. Antonym of {feature}. E.g. "There's a bug in
the editor: it writes things out backward." The
identification and removal of bugs in a program is called
"{debugging}".
Admiral {Grace Hopper} (an early computing pioneer better
known for inventing {COBOL}) liked to tell a story in which a
technician solved a {glitch} in the {Harvard Mark II machine}
by pulling an actual insect out from between the contacts of
one of its relays, and she subsequently promulgated {bug} in
its hackish sense as a joke about the incident (though, as she
was careful to admit, she was not there when it happened).
For many years the logbook associated with the incident and
the actual bug in question (a moth) sat in a display case at
the Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC). The entire story,
with a picture of the logbook and the moth taped into it, is
recorded in the "Annals of the History of Computing", Vol. 3,
No. 3 (July 1981), pp. 285--286.
The text of the log entry (from September 9, 1947), reads
"1545 Relay #70 Panel F (moth) in relay. First actual case of
bug being found". This wording establishes that the term was
already in use at the time in its current specific sense - and
Hopper herself reports that the term "bug" was regularly
applied to problems in radar electronics during WWII.
Indeed, the use of "bug" to mean an industrial defect was
already established in Thomas Edison's time, and a more
specific and rather modern use can be found in an electrical
handbook from 1896 ("Hawkin's New Catechism of Electricity",
Theo. Audel & Co.) which says: "The term "bug" is used to a
limited extent to designate any fault or trouble in the
connections or working of electric apparatus." It further
notes that the term is "said to have originated in
{quadruplex} telegraphy and have been transferred to all
electric apparatus."
The latter observation may explain a common folk etymology of
the term; that it came from telephone company usage, in which
"bugs in a telephone cable" were blamed for noisy lines.
Though this derivation seems to be mistaken, it may well be a
distorted memory of a joke first current among *telegraph*
operators more than a century ago!
Actually, use of "bug" in the general sense of a disruptive
event goes back to Shakespeare! In the first edition of
Samuel Johnson's dictionary one meaning of "bug" is "A
frightful object; a walking spectre"; this is traced to
"bugbear", a Welsh term for a variety of mythological monster
which (to complete the circle) has recently been reintroduced
into the popular lexicon through fantasy {role-playing games}.
In any case, in jargon the word almost never refers to
insects. Here is a plausible conversation that never actually
happened:
"There is a bug in this ant farm!"
"What do you mean? I don't see any ants in it."
"That's the bug."
[There has been a widespread myth that the original bug was
moved to the Smithsonian, and an earlier version of this entry
so asserted. A correspondent who thought to check discovered
that the bug was not there. While investigating this in late
1990, your editor discovered that the NSWC still had the bug,
but had unsuccessfully tried to get the Smithsonian to accept
it - and that the present curator of their History of
American Technology Museum didn't know this and agreed that it
would make a worthwhile exhibit. It was moved to the
Smithsonian in mid-1991, but due to space and money
constraints has not yet been exhibited. Thus, the process of
investigating the original-computer-bug bug fixed it in an
entirely unexpected way, by making the myth true! - ESR]
[{Jargon File}]
(1999-06-29)
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