bug

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A small insect

   There are tiny bugs crawling all over the plant.

2. 2
   noun

   A mistake or fault in a computer program

   The new update fixed several bugs in the app.

3. 3
   noun

   A minor illness, especially one that spreads easily

   Half the office is off with a stomach bug.

4. 4
   verb

   To annoy someone repeatedly

   Stop bugging me while I'm trying to work.

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…

Topics