[TUHS] Bug etymology (was: 70th anniversary of (official) programming errors)

[Greg 'groggy' Lehey]

On Tuesday, 15 June 2021 at 18:54:47 -0400, John Cowan wrote:
> On Tue, Jun 15, 2021 at 6:25 PM Steffen Nurpmeso <steffen at sdaoden.eu> wrote:
>> As not being hard-to-the-core i may have missed it, but also in
>> 1951, in March, the wonderful Grace Hopper "conceives the first
>> compiler, called A-O and later released as Math-Matic.  Hopper is
>> also credited with coining the term 'bug' following an incident
>> involving a moth and a Mark II.
>
> Yes, but wrongly.  The label next to the moth is "First actual case of bug
> being found", and the word "actual" shows that the slang term already
> existed then.

Correct.  The Oxford English Dictionary has two overlapping
definitions (along with dozens of others).  In each case I've shown
the earliest attestation:

 5. Originally U.S.

  a. A defect or fault in a machine (esp. an electrical or electronic
     one), or in a process, etc.

     1875 Operator 15 Aug. 5/1 The biggest ‘bug’ yet has been
          discovered in the U.S. Hotel Electric Annunciator.

  b. Computing. An error or other cause of malfunction in a computer
     program, piece of software, etc.

     1952 Rev. Electronic Digital Computers
          (Amer. Inst. Electr. Engineers) 18/2 The week we spent in
          getting the last bug out of our instruction program was an
          investment we hated to have to make.

It's interesting that they differentiate between the two.

Greg
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