私たちの多くは、「コンピューターバグ」という言葉になじみがありますが、どこからきた言葉か、だれが作った言葉か、ご存知ですか？
The first computer bug was said to be found at Harvard University in 1947, and it was an actual bug. At the time, computers were the size of a small room with plenty of space for insects to crawl into the warm machinery. A moth had done just that, and gotten crushed in a relay point, causing problems with the computing.
But while this was the first documented case of finding an actual computer bug, it was not the first case of the word being used. That honor goes to the inventor Thomas Edison. The first use, which is cited in the historical Oxford English Dictionary, is from 1889:
Mr. Edison, I was informed, had been up the two previous nights discovering 'a bug' in his phonograph - an expression for solving a difficulty, and implying that some imaginary insect has secreted itself inside and is causing all the trouble.
So the next time you use the term computer bug, remember to say a little thanks to Edison.