Exposing the myth behind the first bug reveals a few tales. Shapiro, F. R. BYTE, April, 1994. Commentary/The First Bug
Paper bibtex @article{Shapiro1994,
journal={BYTE},
month ={April},
year=1994,
note={Commentary/The First Bug},
title={{Exposing the myth behind the first bug reveals a few tales}},
author={Fred R. Shapiro},
url={http://www.k12tlc.net/content/pages/byte0909.htm},
urldate={2015-02-14},
annote={On November 18, 1878, Edison wrote to Theodore Puskas,
"It has been just so in all my inventions. The first step is an
intuition---and comes with a burst, then difficulties arise.
This thing gives out and then that---\enquote{Bugs}---as such little
faults and difficulties are called---show themselves and mo nths of
anxious watching, study and labor are requisite before commercial
success--or failure--is certainly reached"
(Matthew Josephson, Edison: A Biography, John Wiley & Sons, 1992,
page 198).
It is plain from citations in the OED, the Dictionary of Americanisms,
and the 1878 Edison quotation that, moth notwithstanding, the computer
term bug was merely a specialized application of a general engineering
term dating from the 1800s. This meaning was common enough by 1934 to
be recognized in Webster's New International Dictionary:
"bug, n...3. A defect in apparatus or its operation...Slang, U.S."},
}