Bug

A flaw in a system that produces incorrect or unexpected behavior.

Origin

Engineers used 'bug' for hardware faults from the 19th century — Edison's 1878 letters complain about them. The famous moth-in-a-relay incident at Harvard in 1947, logged in Grace Hopper's notebook with the moth taped in and the note 'first actual case of bug being found', cemented the modern usage and the myth that she coined it (she didn't, but she popularized it).

Modern usage

Standard everywhere. 'A bug in the plan', 'a bug in the code', 'a bug in the relationship'. Distinguished from a 'feature' even in non-software contexts.

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