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Re:Ask HN: What are software bugs called in other languages? by lvxferre on Friday August 13, 2021 @04:33PM (#28174135)
I'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.

Re:Ask HN: What are software bugs called in other languages? by ranguna on Saturday August 14, 2021 @05:19AM (#28179289)
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).
Re:Ask HN: What are software bugs called in other languages? by lvxferre on Saturday August 14, 2021 @05:31PM (#28184107)
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? by jiehong on Friday August 13, 2021 @08:21PM (#28176507)
In 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 with "débuguer", the French way to turn "to debug" into something usable in the language).

Re:Ask HN: What are software bugs called in other languages? by Zababa on Saturday August 14, 2021 @03:29AM (#28178788)
I've only ever heard "bug" and "débuger", and only saw "bogue" in some publication that would also use "courriel" and the likes. Maybe this has to do with a younger generation? Quebec will probably have a bias for "bogue", as always, but in France I'd say most people use "bug".
Re:Ask HN: What are software bugs called in other languages? by nicbou on Saturday August 14, 2021 @03:25AM (#28178771)
In Québec we commonly use bug/bogue, but might pick a confusing French word in official communications, as is tradition.
Re:Ask HN: What are software bugs called in other languages? by kirubakaran on Saturday August 14, 2021 @03:53PM (#28183505)
> 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? by sharikone on Friday August 13, 2021 @05:00PM (#28174450)
In 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".

Re:Ask HN: What are software bugs called in other languages? by firefoxd on Friday August 13, 2021 @08:38PM (#28176629)
Here I was thinking it was Paamayim Nekudotayim.
Re:Ask HN: What are software bugs called in other languages? by high_byte on Saturday August 14, 2021 @03:12AM (#28178721)
php IS the bug
Re:Ask HN: What are software bugs called in other languages? by 2rsf on Monday August 16, 2021 @04:06AM (#28195961)
I googled תקל and got zero results which are not dictionaries...
Re:Ask HN: What are software bugs called in other languages? by jstx1 on Friday August 13, 2021 @04:05PM (#28173860)
In many of them it's still "bug". Just like computer is still computer or some version thereof. A lot of newer and technical words are copied or transcribed from English instead of being translated.
Re:Ask HN: What are software bugs called in other languages? by VladimirGolovin on Friday August 13, 2021 @05:40PM (#28174906)
In Russian, it’s the same word, transliterated as “баг". And the same is true for “feature”: it’s also transliterated directly to “фича".
Re:Ask HN: What are software bugs called in other languages? by cjbprime on Friday August 13, 2021 @05:40PM (#28174899)
I'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.
Re:Ask HN: What are software bugs called in other languages? by cookiengineer on Sunday August 15, 2021 @11:44PM (#28194739)
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? by timonoko on Saturday August 14, 2021 @02:15AM (#28178486)
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/bugi#Finnish

There are also several verbs:

"To make a bug": BUGATA.

"To act erroneously because of a bug": BUGITTAA.

"To have habit of causing bugs or acting errorneously": BUGAILLA

Re:Ask HN: What are software bugs called in other languages? by geza on Friday August 13, 2021 @06:32PM (#28175563)
Chinese: 程序错误 (程序=program, 错误=error) is used for the generic sort of software bug. If the bug is a security hole, then it's instead called 漏洞 (leak). Though sometimes the English word "bug" is used, see for example https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E7%A8%8B%E5%BA%8F%E9%94%99%E8... which uses a mix of the two terms. Sometimes it's mistakenly capitalized as BUG, see for example https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E8%BD%AF%E4%BB%B6BUG/12618010 (this phenomenon in Chinese of capitalizing some English words that aren't actually acronyms happens with some other words too, like APP instead of app/application, etc).
Re:Ask HN: What are software bugs called in other languages? by Tabular-Iceberg on Friday August 13, 2021 @06:55PM (#28175832)
Can we have some Pīnyīn, please?
Re:Ask HN: What are software bugs called in other languages? by geza on Friday August 13, 2021 @06:58PM (#28175857)
程序错误=cheng2 xu4 cuo4 wu4 漏洞=lou4 dong4
Re:Ask HN: What are software bugs called in other languages? by litoE on Friday August 13, 2021 @06:34PM (#28175591)
In the USA we call them "features".
Re:Ask HN: What are software bugs called in other languages? by Phileosopher on Friday August 13, 2021 @08:40PM (#28176644)
Someone really needs to make a tech dejargonizer. I'm very tired of hearing things like "best-in-class API that implements a proprietary protocol to direct network information". Something like Bullshit.js[0].

[0]https://mourner.github.io/bullshit.js/

Re:Ask HN: What are software bugs called in other languages? by muzani on Friday August 13, 2021 @08:20PM (#28176502)
In Malay, it's officially called "pepijat". Debug is "nyahpepijat". It sounds jarring because it means "insect", and "reverse insect".

So most of the time we just use the word bug, and it's a third of the syllable count.

Interestingly the word clicks a lot better with the other English use of "bug", which is to sneak a microphone into a room.

From a poetic angle, "pijak" means step (on). I don't know if that's the etymology, but it evokes the idea that "pepijat" is something with a lot of little steps and something you want to step on.

With a computer bug, you can't really step on it, but with a microphone bug you can.

Re:Ask HN: What are software bugs called in other languages? by rad_gruchalski on Friday August 13, 2021 @06:22PM (#28175425)
In Polish it's singular "błąd" and plural "błędy". Today people also often refer to them as simply singular "bug" and plural "bugi".
Re:Ask HN: What are software bugs called in other languages? by dkrajzew on Sunday August 15, 2021 @04:57PM (#28192476)
Blady?
Re:Ask HN: What are software bugs called in other languages? by rad_gruchalski on Thursday August 19, 2021 @08:27AM (#28232923)
Blady means pale in Polish.
Re:Ask HN: What are software bugs called in other languages? by diego_moita on Friday August 13, 2021 @04:08PM (#28173889)
Brazilian Portuguese: mostly is called "boogie", our garbled pronounciation for bug.

Sometimes is called "erro" (error) or "defeito" (defect).

Re:Ask HN: What are software bugs called in other languages? by finger on Friday August 13, 2021 @06:37PM (#28175630)
In Danish I would use the word “fejl”, which translates to mistake/error/glitch.

In Faroese it is “lús” (lice) which refers to a “villa” (mistake) or “brek” (defect) in software, according to the dictionary. I would personally refer to a bug as “villa” or “feilur” which is the same as the Danish word “fejl”.

To debug is to “kemba” (comb), and debugger “kembari” (comber, if that is a word, someone who combs).

Re:Ask HN: What are software bugs called in other languages? by phekunde on Sunday August 15, 2021 @02:34PM (#28191165)
I 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? by BjoernKW on Friday August 13, 2021 @08:32PM (#28176588)
In 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".
Re:Ask HN: What are software bugs called in other languages? by BjoernKW on Saturday August 14, 2021 @09:05AM (#28180297)
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? by johnwalkr on Friday August 13, 2021 @06:07PM (#28175228)
In Japanese you can use the word "enbug", as an antonym for "debug".
Re:Ask HN: What are software bugs called in other languages? by AnimalMuppet on Saturday August 14, 2021 @01:01AM (#28178105)
I may steal that...
Re:Ask HN: What are software bugs called in other languages? by gus_massa on Friday August 13, 2021 @04:16PM (#28173972)
es-ar: "bug" we usually mix technical words in English in the middle of sentences in Spanish. The correct word in Spanish is "error" (the phonetics is something like "eh-rrohr"), but it's a generic word for errors, not only software bugs.

My guess is that the other countries in America that speak Spanish use this mix, but in Spain they may use the translated version.

Re:Ask HN: What are software bugs called in other languages? by ruben81adelaide on Friday August 13, 2021 @07:19PM (#28176056)
From my working experience in Spain, "error" is a more generic term. The word "bug" is commonly used to specify an error in the software.
Re:Ask HN: What are software bugs called in other languages? by Shorel on Friday August 13, 2021 @07:06PM (#28175939)
Falla.
Re:Ask HN: What are software bugs called in other languages? by laurieg on Saturday August 14, 2021 @05:09AM (#28179244)
I've never really thought of "bug" as being very idiomatic (at least, no more than other words).

The origin of the word "bug" doesn't come from the insect sense of the word. Bug has roots in a word "bogey" meaning devil. You still see its remnants in words like bugbear and bugaboo.

Re:Ask HN: What are software bugs called in other languages? by ranguna on Saturday August 14, 2021 @05:23AM (#28179310)
Wait.. Isn't the origin of "bug" in computer science, a literal insect stuck in one of Turing's universal machines ?
Re:Ask HN: What are software bugs called in other languages? by laurieg on Saturday August 14, 2021 @08:25AM (#28180096)
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...

Re:Ask HN: What are software bugs called in other languages? by Someone on Saturday August 14, 2021 @11:44AM (#28181541)
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? by lioeters on Friday August 13, 2021 @06:11PM (#28175277)
In Japanese it's バグ ("bagu"), "a fault or defect in a computer program".

A funny slang term is バグる ("baguru") - it's an artificially constructed verb that means "to behave buggily", often used to describe when a game or software glitches.

Re:Ask HN: What are software bugs called in other languages? by burgerrito on Friday August 13, 2021 @11:36PM (#28177625)
I recently starting (re)-learning Japanese, and I realized that they have a lot of clever slang! My favorite one is 鯖(saba) which means mackerel, but they use it as a slang for server/game server, because it sounds similiar to サーバー (sābā) which means server in Japanese. There are many others, I'm pretty sure, but this is the one I can think of.
Re:Ask HN: What are software bugs called in other languages? by cocoa19 on Saturday August 14, 2021 @01:47AM (#28178374)
Aha, that brings back memories of Zelda's characters named Bagu and Error.

So that's what's up, Zelda II programmers were having fun with names.

Re:Ask HN: What are software bugs called in other languages? by deeteecee on Friday August 13, 2021 @06:57PM (#28175849)
i recently learned their word for a video going viral which is the verb バズる ("bazuru" aka buzz)
Re:Ask HN: What are software bugs called in other languages? by spapas82 on Friday August 13, 2021 @05:17PM (#28174646)
Here is Greece we just call them bugs (we use the English word, not any transitions).
Re:Ask HN: What are software bugs called in other languages? by Shorel on Friday August 13, 2021 @07:06PM (#28175935)
Just reading a bug report this morning, the word used was "falla".

Spanish. South America.

Re:Ask HN: What are software bugs called in other languages? by dkrajzew on Sunday August 15, 2021 @04:58PM (#28192483)
German: - "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? by alejo on Saturday August 14, 2021 @08:53AM (#28180234)
In Costa Rica and other Latin American countries at least we called it, colloquially, “pulga”
Re:Ask HN: What are software bugs called in other languages? by 2rsf on Monday August 16, 2021 @04:08AM (#28195964)
Bugg in Swedish, it is basically the same word only pronounced as "boog"
Re:Ask HN: What are software bugs called in other languages? by cblconfederate on Monday August 16, 2021 @07:23AM (#28196872)
"bug" in greek
Re:Ask HN: What are software bugs called in other languages? by helph67 on Friday August 13, 2021 @06:28PM (#28175516)
In BASIC `undocumented feature'!