English
bug
Bug comes from Middle English bugge ‘scarecrow, hobgoblin’.
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500bugge‘scarecrow, hobgoblin’
- Englishearliest quotation c. 1610–1611bug
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
Earlier history uncertain.
Lineage
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500bugge‘scarecrow, hobgoblin’
- Englishearliest quotation c. 1610–1611bug
Earliest quotation: c. 1610–1611, William Shakespeare, The Winters Tale: “Sir, spare your threats: / The bug which you…”
first attested 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: (as stated in the etymology)
The story
For the “insect” meaning the assonance with Middle English budde (‘beetle’), from Old English budda, from Proto-West Germanic *buʀdō, from Proto-Germanic *buzdô, from the same ultimate source as above, might have played a role. 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.
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *bʰew-
beat, bold, beam, beetle, bile, paddock, footer, beal, poutine, 6 more
through Proto-Germanic *bugja- ‘swollen up, thick’
Today it means
noun An insect of the order Hemiptera (the “true bugs”).
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Middle English bugge / bug