bug
Part of speech: noun
verb
Morphological type: simple
Topics: aeronautics
aerospace
aviation
biology
broadcasting
business
card-games
computing
engineering
entomology
gambling
games
history
hobbies
horse-racing
horseracing
horses
human-sciences
lifestyle
mathematics
media
natural-sciences
paleontology
pets
physical-sciences
poker
printing
publishing
racing
sciences
sports
television
Etymology: First attested in this form around 1620 (referring to a “bedbug”), from earlier bugge (“beetle”), from Middle English bugge (“scarecrow, hobgoblin”) which is traced alternatively to:
* a Celtic root found in Scots bogill (“goblin, bugbear”) and obsolete Welsh bwg (“ghost, hobgoblin”); compare Welsh bwgwl (“threat, fear”) and Middle Irish bocanách (“supernatural being”).
* Proto-Germanic *bugja- (“swollen up, thick”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰew-, *bu- (“to swell”); compare Norwegian bugge (“big man”), dialectal Low German Bögge (“goblin, snot”).
* or to a word related to buck and originally referring to a goat-shaped spectre.
For the “insect” meaning the assonance with Middle English budde (“beetle”), from Old English budda, from Proto-Germanic *buddô, *buzdô, from the same ultimate source as above, might have played a role. Compare Low German Budde (“louse, grub”), Norwegian budda (“newborn domestic animal”). More at bud. But ultimately this convergence of meaning doesn't prove a conflation of the two terms; they might have existed in parallel since PIE times with similar meanings, even if unnoticed by literary sources.
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.
Inflected forms:
form: bugs
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: bugg
pos: noun
tags: alternative
obsolete
form: bugs
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: bugging
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: bugged
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: bugged
pos: verb
tags: past
form: bugg
pos: verb
tags: alternative
obsolete
Senses:
gloss: An insect of the order Hemiptera (the “true bugs”).
pos: noun
examples: Several pretty beetles, a superb "bug," and a few nice land-shells were obtained, and I returned in the afternoon well satisfied with my first trial of the promised land.
gloss: Any motile small terrestrial invertebrate, especially one that is seen as a pest.
pos: noun
tags: informal
proscribed
examples: Speaking of advertising changes of name, a title by which those lodging-house pests, bugs, are now often known, that of Norfolk Howards, is derived from an advertisement in which one Ephraim Bug avowed his intention of being for the future known as Norfolk Howard.
Bugs are generated from the moisture of living animals, as it dries up outside their bodies. Lice are generated out of the flesh of animals.
These flies are a bother. I’ll get some bug spray and kill them.
gloss: Any motile small terrestrial invertebrate, especially one that is seen as a pest.
pos: noun
tags: informal
proscribed
examples: A: Eew, what is that thing?! Is that a bug?! B: No, it's a spider. And don't worry: she's not gonna hurt you.
gloss: Any motile small terrestrial invertebrate, especially one that is seen as a pest.
pos: noun
tags: informal
proscribed
examples: Bugs, oysters, prawns and crabs […] are plated up on the decks of four side-by-side trawlers bobbing on the calm waters of Trinity Inlet.
gloss: Any motile small terrestrial invertebrate, especially one that is seen as a pest.
pos: noun
tags: informal
proscribed
slang
examples: 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.
gloss: Any motile small terrestrial invertebrate, especially one that is seen as a pest.
pos: noun
tags: Maine
informal
proscribed
gloss: Any motile small terrestrial invertebrate, especially one that is seen as a pest.
pos: noun
tags: UK
informal
obsolete
proscribed
specifically
gloss: A problem that needs fixing.
pos: noun
tags: jargon
examples: The software bug led the computer to calculate 2 plus 2 as 3.
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... 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.
gloss: A contagious illness, or a pathogen causing it.
pos: noun
examples: He's got the flu bug.
gloss: An enthusiasm for something; an obsession.
pos: noun
tags: informal
examples: I caught the skiing bug while staying in the Alps.
As we rode in the bus in the weird phosphorescent void of the Lincoln Tunnel we leaned on each other with fingers waving and yelled and talked excitedly, and I was beginning to get the bug like Dean.
gloss: A keen enthusiast or hobbyist.
pos: noun
tags: informal
examples: His mother had been a bug on astrology, which was why the moment of his birth had been impressed on him so exactly.
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.
gloss: A concealed electronic eavesdropping or intercept device
pos: noun
examples: We installed a bug in her telephone.
gloss: A small and usually invisible file (traditionally a single-pixel image) on a World Wide Web page, primarily used to track users.
pos: noun
examples: He suspected the image was a Web bug used for determining who was visiting the site.
gloss: A small, usually transparent or translucent image placed in a corner of a television program to identify the broadcasting network or cable channel.
pos: noun
examples: Channel 4's bug distracted Jim from his favorite show.
The score bug displays the current football score over the ongoing match.
gloss: A manually positioned marker in flight instruments.
pos: noun
examples: You look up the proper speed for the phase of flight, set the reminder bug, and then literally forget the speed. You don't read the airspeed number, you fly to the bug.
gloss: A semi-automated telegraph key.
pos: noun
examples: 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.
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.
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.
gloss: Hobgoblin, scarecrow; anything that terrifies.
pos: noun
tags: obsolete
examples: Sir, spare your threats: / The bug which you would fright me with I seek.
gloss: HIV.
pos: noun
examples: The arguably most debated bareback practice that came to attract attention early on (and still does) was that of "bug chasing," in which HIV-negative men (bug chasers) actively seek out sex with HIV-positive men (gift givers).
gloss: A limited form of wild card in some variants of poker.
pos: noun
gloss: Synonym of oil bug.
pos: noun
tags: US
dated
slang
examples: 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.
gloss: An asterisk denoting an apprentice jockey's weight allowance.
pos: noun
tags: US
slang
examples: The "bugs" are the asterisks next to the apprentice's name. One bug is a five-pound allowance, two bugs equal seven pounds, and three bugs equal ten pounds.
gloss: A young apprentice jockey.
pos: noun
tags: US
broadly
slang
gloss: Synonym of union bug.
pos: noun
gloss: A small piece of metal used in a slot machine to block certain winning combinations.
pos: noun
tags: slang
examples: Because many illegal slot-machine operators here and abroad do not like to give the slot-machine player even one chance to hit the jackpot or the big bonus, they make use of a "bug." This is a small, flat half-circle of iron about an inch long, which looks something like a bug.
gloss: A metal clip attached to the underside of a table, etc. to hold hidden cards, as a form of cheating.
pos: noun
tags: slang
examples: Some clumsy or audacious sharpers will go so far as to hold out cards in their lap, or stick them in a "bug" under the table.
Fargo had been in a saloon in Kansas when a man was caught using a bug. Made of steel and shaped like a money clip with two sharp ends, the bug was jammed under a table and held cards the bug's owner palmed until they were needed.
gloss: To annoy.
pos: verb
tags: informal
transitive
examples: Don’t bug me, I’m busy!
gloss: To act suspiciously or irrationally, especially in a way that annoys others.
pos: verb
tags: informal
intransitive
examples: I'm worried about Wallace. He's been buggin' all week.
gloss: To install an electronic listening device or devices in.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: We need to know what’s going on. We’ll bug his house.
gloss: To bulge or protrude.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: I well remember the combination of excitement and apprehension with which I tentatively entered my first "rap." My eyes bugged open. There must have been 25 women in the room. I don't think I had ever seen so many lesbians all together in one place before.
gloss: To represent (a value) using a bug on an instrument.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: You (or the autopilot) are still steering to the bugged heading […]
Derived words: ambush bug
antibug
arithmetic bug
armadillo bug
ash-gray leaf bug
assassin bug
Australian bug
bagrada bug
bait bug
Balmain bug
bat bug
beard bug
bedbug
beer bug
beetle bug
Bess bug
Betsey bug
Betsy bug
bitten by the same bug
boat bug
bohrbug
bow bug
broad-headed bug
brown marmorated stink bug
buffalo bug
bug-a-boo
bugbane
bugbear
bug bomb
bug-chaser
bug-chasing
bug check
bug compatibility
bug compatible
bugdom
buge
bug eye
bug-eyed
bug-eyed monster
bug eyes
bugfix
bugfree
bugfucker
buggable
buggee
bugger
buggish
bug hotel
bughouse
bug-hunter
bugicide
bug in one's bonnet
bug juice
bugkind
bugless
buglet
buglike
bugmail
bugman
bug-man
bug nation
bugnuts
bug off
bugology
bug-on-a-stick
bug-out
bug-out bag
bugproof
bug-ridden
bug screen
bug scrub
bug shoe
bugsome
bug spray
bug storm
Bugthesda
bug up one's ass
bug-walk
bugwood
bug-word
bugwort
bug zapper
burrowing bug
China bug
cocaine bugs
conchuela bug
conenose bug
crank bug
crazier than a June bug
crazy as a cootie bug
creeping water bug
Croton bug
cuddle bug
cute as a bug in a rug
damsel bug
dead-bug
debug
doodlebug
dorbug
double-headed bug
dustbug
ebony bug
electric light bug
enbugging
eyelash bug
feather-legged bug
firebug
flat bug
flower bug
giant mesquite bug
giant water bug
ginger bug
given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow
gnat bug
gold bug
golden egg bug
grass assassin bug
greenbug
greenhouse bug
green vegetable bug
harlequin bug
harlequin cabbage bug
harmonica bug
harvest bug
heisenbug
Hindenbug
hoard-bug
honeybug
hornbug
Jesus bug
jewel bug
jitterbug
June bug
kissing bug
kudzu bug
lace bug
ladybug
leaf-footed bug
lightning bug
like a bug to a zapper
like a chicken on a June bug
litterbug
look like one swallowed a bug
lovebug
lygus bug
mandelbug
May bug
mealybug
mellow bug
milkweed bug
millennium bug
minute pirate bug
mirid bug
Morton Bay bug
moss bug
negro bug
new bug
North American wheel bug
off-by-one bug
oil bug
painted bug
palmetto bug
parent bug
pea bug
picnic bug
pill bug
pinacate bug
pirate bug
plant bug
potato bug
pram bug
predator bug
pumpkin bug
put a bug in someone's ear
red bug
redbug
red pumpkin bug
riffle bug
river bug
rose bug
Rutherglen bug
salve bug
sand bug
scarebug
schroedinbug
score bug
scorpion bug
sea bug
seed bug
shield-backed bug
shield bug
shoot bug
shore bug
shutterbug
slugabug
slug bug
snug as a bug in a rug
snugglebug
southern green stink bug
sow bug
spitbug
spittlebug
squash bug
stick bug
stilt bug
stinkbug
stomach bug
striped shield bug
superbug
sycamore lace bug
tarnished plant bug
termite bug
thread bug
thread-legged bug
thunderbug
toad bug
travel bug
true bug
tumblebug
union bug
unique-headed bug
vampire bug
variegated coffee bug
velvet water bug
water bug
web bug
wekiu bug
welding bug
welwitschia bug
wheat bug
wheel bug
wood bug
wug
Y10K bug
Y2K bug
bug down
bug in
bug out
bug up
Translations:
lang: Afrikaans
word: gogga
lang: Armenian
word: բլոճ
roman: bloč
lang: Armenian
word: բլոջ
roman: bloǰ
lang: Armenian
word: բողոճ
roman: boġoč
lang: Asturian
word: bichu
lang: Asturian
word: cocu
lang: Asturian
word: coca
lang: Bashkir
word: бөжәк
roman: böjək
lang: Basque
word: zomorro
lang: Basque
word: insektu
lang: Belarusian
word: кузу́рка
roman: kuzúrka
lang: Belarusian
word: казю́лька
roman: kazjúlʹka
lang: Belarusian
word: казя́ўка
roman: kazjáwka
lang: Belarusian
word: казу́рка
roman: kazúrka
lang: Bulgarian
word: буболе́чка
roman: buboléčka
lang: Catalan
word: cuca
lang: Catalan
word: bestiola
lang: Chinese Mandarin
word: 蟲 /虫
roman: chóng
lang: Choctaw
word: shu̱shi
lang: Czech
word: brouk
lang: Danish
word: insekt
lang: Danish
word: kryb
lang: Dutch
word: insect
lang: Dutch
word: beestje
lang: Esperanto
word: cimo
lang: Finnish
word: ötökkä
lang: French
word: insecte
lang: French
word: petite bête
lang: Galician
word: becho
lang: Galician
word: bicho
lang: Galician
word: coco
lang: German
word: Wanze
lang: German
word: Krabbeltier
lang: German
word: Ungeziefer
lang: Greek
word: κοριός
roman: koriós
lang: Greek
word: ζωύφιο
roman: zoýfio
lang: Greek
word: ζουζούνι
roman: zouzoúni
lang: Haitian Creole
word: ensèk
lang: Hebrew
word: חרק
roman: kharák
lang: Hebrew
word: ג׳וּק
roman: juk
lang: Hungarian
word: bogár
lang: Icelandic
word: padda
lang: Indonesian
word: serangga
lang: Ingrian
word: itikka
lang: Irish
word: feithid
lang: Irish
word: míol
lang: Italian
word: bacarozzo
lang: Japanese
word: 虫
roman: mushi
lang: Khmer
word: សត្វល្អិត
roman: sat l’ət
lang: Korean
word: 벌레
roman: beolle
lang: Latin
word: cīmex
lang: Latvian
word: kukainis
lang: Macedonian
word: бубачка
roman: bubačka
lang: Maltese
word: insett żgħir
lang: Marathi
word: कीडा
roman: kīḍā
lang: Mi'kmaq
word: jujij
lang: Mi'kmaq
word: juji'ji'j
lang: Mongolian
word: шавьж
roman: šavʹž
lang: Mongolian
word: бясаа
roman: bjasaa
lang: Mongolian
word: хорхой
roman: xorxoj
lang: Nanai
word: колан
roman: kolan
lang: Navajo
word: chʼosh
lang: Old English
word: pēo
lang: Polish
word: robak
lang: Polish
word: robal
lang: Polish
word: owad
lang: Polish
word: insekt
lang: Portuguese
word: bicho
lang: Portuguese
word: bichinho
lang: Romanian
word: gândac
lang: Romanian
word: gânganie
lang: Russian
word: бука́шка
roman: bukáška
lang: Russian
word: козя́вка
roman: kozjávka
lang: Russian
word: насеко́мое
roman: nasekómoje
lang: Sardinian
word: babboi
lang: Sardinian
word: cerpíu
lang: Serbo-Croatian
word: buba
lang: Slovene
word: žužek
lang: Spanish
word: bicho
lang: Swahili
word: mdudu
lang: Swedish
word: kryp
lang: Tagalog
word: gagapang
lang: Thai
word: แมลง
roman: má-lɛɛng
lang: Thai
word: แมง
roman: mɛɛng
lang: Turkish
word: böcek
lang: Ottoman Turkish
word: بوجك
roman: böcek
lang: Ottoman Turkish
word: حشره
roman: haşere
lang: Ukrainian
word: кома́шка
roman: komáška
lang: Ukrainian
word: ку́зька
roman: kúzʹka
lang: Ukrainian
word: ку́зка
roman: kúzka
lang: Ukrainian
word: кома́ха
roman: komáxa
lang: Vietnamese
word: bọ
lang: Welsh
word: pryf
lang: Welsh
word: llau