4 definitions found
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]:
Bug \Bug\, n. [OE. bugge, fr W. bwg, bwgan, hobgoblin,
scarecrow, bugbear. Cf {Bogey}, {Boggle}.]
1. A bugbear; anything which terrifies. [Obs.]
Sir, spare your threats: The bug which you would
fright me with I seek. --Shak.
2. (Zo["o]l.) A general name applied to various insects
belonging to the Hemiptera; as the squash bug; the chinch
bug, etc
3. (Zo["o]l.) An insect of the genus {Cimex}, especially the
bedbug ({C. lectularius}). See {Bedbug}.
4. (Zo["o]l.) One of various species of Coleoptera; as the
ladybug; potato bug, etc.; loosely, any beetle.
5. (Zo["o]l.) One of certain kinds of Crustacea; as the sow
bug; pill bug; bait bug; salve bug, etc
Note: According to present popular usage in England, and
among housekeepers in America, bug, when not joined
with some qualifying word is used specifically for
bedbug. As a general term it is used very loosely in
America, 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.
{Bait bug}. See under {Bait}.
{Bug word}, swaggering or threatening language. [Obs.]
--Beau. & Fl
From WordNet r 1.6 [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}, {harass}, {pester},
{beleaguer}]
2: tap a telephone or telegraph wire to get information [syn:
{wiretap}, {tap}, {intercept}]
From Jargon File (4.2.3, 23 NOV 2000) [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 stereotype 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 (13 Mar 01) [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 backwards." 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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