In Costa Rica and other Latin American countries at least we called it, colloquially, “pulga”
Ask HN: What are software bugs called in other languages?
41–50 of 53 posts
Re: Ask HN: What are software bugs called in other languages?
#42In German, they're indeed and usually just called "bugs", too, which of course is an anglicisation. Truly natively, they're called a "Fehler", which can translate to either "error" or "mistake".
s/\S+(nglicis)\w+/A$1m/ (i.e., should be "Anglicism" instead of "anglicisation")
Re: Ask HN: What are software bugs called in other languages?
#43Earlier quoted context omitted.
Wait.. Isn't the origin of "bug" in computer science, a literal insect stuck in one of Turing's universal machines ?
I think you're probably mis-representing the famous Grace Hopper story which is often cited as being the origin of the word bug[1]. In fact, in Hopper's notebook she even writes "First actual case of bug being found". The use of the word "actual" implies that the word bug has been used before and etymologies back this up. [1] https://www.nationalgeographic.org/thisday/sep9/worlds-first...
https://handwiki.org/wiki/Engineering:Bug_(engineering):
“The Middle English word bugge is the basis for the terms "bugbear" and "bugaboo" as terms used for a monster.
The term "bug" to describe defects has been a part of engineering jargon since the 1870s and predates electronic computers and computer software; it may have originally been used in hardware engineering to describe mechanical malfunctions. For instance, Thomas Edison wrote the following words in a letter to an associate in 1878:
It has been just so in all of my inventions. The first step is an intuition, and comes with a burst, then difficulties arise—this thing gives out and [it is] then that "Bugs"—as such little faults and difficulties are called—show themselves and months of intense watching, study and labor are requisite before commercial success or failure is certainly reached.”
That page also says:
“The related term "debug" also appears to predate its usage in computing: the Oxford English Dictionary's etymology of the word contains an attestation from 1945, in the context of aircraft engines.”
Re: Ask HN: What are software bugs called in other languages?
#44In French (France and Quebec), people use "bogue" (even though they tend to pronounce it like "bug"). It means "burr", aka the spiky chestnut hull. To debug is "déboguer", which only means to debug (and not opening/removing the chestnut burr). Alternatively, "défaut" is also used (defect). Sometimes the more general "erreur" (error) can be used. However, the English word "bug" is getting used more and more (along wit…
> the English word "bug" is getting used more and more
True, except I've only heard it pronounced "boog".
Re: Ask HN: What are software bugs called in other languages?
#45I've seen mostly ⟨bug⟩ in both Italian and Portuguese. Uncommonly ⟨erro de programação⟩ (PT) / ⟨errore di programmazione⟩ (IT). I pronounce it ['bu.ge] in both languages, although the pronunciation might vary quite a bit in Portuguese; the last vowel can be [e ɪ i ə] or non-existent, depending on the dialect. It's just epenthetic, given neither language likes hard codas.
Just a note, adding an "e" at the end of "bug" when pronouncing is not a think in Portuguese from Portugal, I mostly hear it from our good friends from Brazil, and they've actually started dropping the "e" (at least the ones I work with).
It depends far more on the actual dialect than the country, as it's phonotactics-dependent; for example I'd still expect Alentejano dialect to add a short [ɪ], or Mineiro to skip it, even if it's the opposite direction of the "trend".
And the vowel itself might vary quite a bit. I use [e] due to my dialect (Sulista) still keeping the post-stress final /e/ vs. /i/ distinction (e.g. "SETI" and "sete" sound different for us), but [ɪ] and [i] are likely more common for people who merged both.
Re: Ask HN: What are software bugs called in other languages?
#46I use to work for an Indian company in the Indian state of Maharashtra. The language there is Marathi. So the employees used Marathi words for some programming terms e.g. "palala" for "ran" or "palav" for "run it" i.e. "program palala/palav" or "program adakla" for "program is stuck", or if the application release is given go ahead by the QA teams, then "yogya" for OK :) And if there was a bug, then the engineers/QA teams used the sentence "barobar naahiye" i.e. it is not correct. The verbatim word for "bug" was not used. The verbatim word for "bug" in Marathi language would be "kidaa" or "paakhroo" :)
Re: Ask HN: What are software bugs called in other languages?
#47In Polish it's singular "błąd" and plural "błędy". Today people also often refer to them as simply singular "bug" and plural "bugi".
Blady?
Re: Ask HN: What are software bugs called in other languages?
#48German:
- "Ich habe einen bug", "Da ist ein Fehler"
- "Da ist ein glitch"
- Ein typo
Re: Ask HN: What are software bugs called in other languages?
#49I'm not a fluent German speaker, but my amateur sense is that word forms of "fault", "mistake", "failure" are used in German instead, e.g. fehl and Software-Fehler.
German here, can confirm. "Fehler" or "Problem" are used very commonly.
Some demographic is using "bug" but the classical industry (e.g. automotive, manufacturing etc) still uses German terms.
There's a "famous" course at the KIT in Karlsruhe where the professor only uses German terms for everything related to Computer Science to make a point about most stuff originating by German researchers when it comes to basic concepts in CS. So the professor is using terms like "Stapel" instead of stack, or "Rechner" instead of CPU etc.
Re: Ask HN: What are software bugs called in other languages?
#50In Hebrew it's mostly bug (באג). However there is an official translation "teqel" (תקל). It is a derivative of a root that means "to stumble". It suggests a resolvable setback more than an "error".
I googled תקל and got zero results which are not dictionaries...