In today’s digital era, it has become common for mobile apps to crash, websites to not work properly or computer errors to occur. At such times, technical experts often say, ‘There is a bug in the system’ or ‘The bug has to be fixed.’ But have you ever wondered where the word ‘bug’ used for computer malfunction came from?

Many people think that this word would be related to virus, malware or any software error. But its real story is quite interesting. The special thing is that this ‘bug’ was actually a live insect.

How was the world’s first computer bug found?
This incident is of 9 September 1947. At that time computers were not as small as today’s laptops. They were as big as entire rooms and contained thousands of wires, switches and mechanical parts.

At that time, work was going on on a computer named Mark II at Harvard University. Suddenly the computer stopped working and started showing continuous errors. Engineers and technicians started finding the reason for this.

During investigation they found something stuck in a part of the computer. On looking closely, everyone was surprised, because a moth was stuck there.

Due to that worm, there was a blockage in the circuit of the computer. This caused a malfunction in the system and the computer was not working properly. As soon as the moth was removed, the computer started running normally again.

Grace Hopper made history
Information about this incident was recorded by famous computer scientist Grace Hopper in her logbook. He pasted that moth in the logbook and wrote along with it, ‘First actual case of bug being found.’ Even today it is considered an important part of the history of record technology.

How was the word debugging created?
When the worm was removed from the computer, the process was jokingly called ‘De-bugging’. Later the term ‘Debugging’ came to be used for the process of finding and fixing errors in a computer program or system. Today programmers and software engineers around the world use this word.

What is the difference between today’s bug and that time’s bug?
The bug of 1947 was a real bug, whereas today ‘Bug’ means a mistake in software, a code error, or a technical problem. That means today’s bug is digital, whereas the bug of that time was actually a flying insect.

A funny story from the world of technology
Today, crores of people around the world use computers, mobiles and internet. Software companies find and fix millions of bugs every day. But very few people know that this word originated from a small moth.

So the next time someone says ‘there is a bug in the system’, remember that behind this word lies a true and very interesting story from the history of technology.