debug

Etymology

It is formed from English de- + bug.^{[2][3][4][5][6][7]} The OED and Merriam-Webster Unabridged take the base as bug in the sense of an insect,^[2][4] while Etymonline derives the machine sense from bug in the sense of a glitch or defect in a machine,^[3] a sense recorded from 1889 that may have been coined about 1878 by Thomas Edison.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

To remove insect pests from, especially with a pesticide: 1901, in the Springfield (Massachusetts) Sunday Republican.^[2] The 1989 edition of the OED dated this sense 1960, as a synonym of delouse.^[8]

Semantic evolution

The OED marks the insect sense as originally and chiefly American.^[2] From 1943 the verb was used of finding and correcting faults in a machine or process,^[2] which Etymonline dates to 1945, of machine systems;^[3] in later use it is chiefly said of errors in computer programs, and the nouns debugger, a person who does this (1962) and a program that helps to do it (1964), followed.^[2] After bug came to mean a concealed microphone (1946),^[3] debug was also used, originally in American colloquial speech, for finding and removing such listening devices, from 1959 in the revised OED, and 1964 in Etymonline.^[2][3][8] Merriam-Webster Unabridged also records the sense of making hidden microphones ineffective by electronic means.^[4]

Timeline

• 1901 – to rid of insect pests.^[2] Merriam-Webster Unabridged dates this sense to 1944.^[4]
• 1943 – to find and remedy faults in a machine or process, later especially errors in computer programs.^[2] Etymonline dates it to 1945.^[3][8]
• 1959 – to find and remove concealed microphones or other surveillance devices.^[2] Etymonline dates it to 1964.^[3][8]

Meanings

Verb

1. To find and correct errors in a computer program, or faults in a machine or system: The team spent a week debugging the new billing software.^[4][5][2]
2. To find and remove hidden microphones or wiretap devices from a place: Security staff debugged the hotel suite before the talks.^[4][5][2]
3. To make hidden microphones ineffective by electronic means.^[4][8]
4. To remove insects from: They debugged the bean plants with a spray.^[4][5][2]

Noun

1. Something, especially a computer program, that finds and removes faults in a device or system; also used before another noun.^[5]

Word family

• debugger

Related words

• bug

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
6. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
7. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d e Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press