bug

Where “bug” sits in English frequency

Definition

1. 1
   An insect of the order Hemiptera (the “true bugs”).
2. 2
   Any of various species of marine (saltwater or freshwater) crustaceans; e.g. a Moreton Bay bug, mudbug.
3. 3
   Any insect, arachnid, or other terrestrial arthropod that is a pest.
4. 4
   Any minibeast.
5. 5
   Any minibeast.
6. 6
   Any minibeast.
7. 7
   A bedbug.
8. 8
   A problem that needs fixing.
9. 9
   A contagious illness, or a pathogen causing it.
10. 10
    An enthusiasm for something; an obsession.
11. 11
    A keen enthusiast or hobbyist.
12. 12
    A concealed electronic eavesdropping or intercept device
13. 13
    A small and usually invisible file (traditionally a single-pixel image) on a World Wide Web page, primarily used to track users.
14. 14
    A lobster.
15. 15
    A small, usually transparent or translucent image placed in a corner of a television program to identify the broadcasting network or cable channel.
16. 16
    A manually positioned marker in flight instruments.
17. 17
    A semi-automated telegraph key.
18. 18
    Hobgoblin, scarecrow; anything that terrifies.
19. 19
    HIV.
20. 20
    A limited form of wild card in some variants of poker.
21. 21
    A trilobite.
22. 22
    Synonym of oil bug.
23. 23
    An asterisk denoting an apprentice jockey's weight allowance.
24. 24
    A young apprentice jockey.
25. 25
    Synonym of union bug.
26. 26
    A small piece of metal used in a slot machine to block certain winning combinations.
27. 27
    A metal clip attached to the underside of a table, etc. to hold hidden cards, as a form of cheating.

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.

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