[Ads-l] Question About Grace Murray Hopper As Word-Coiner

[Peter Reitan]

My sense is that it would depend on whether she used "bug" to refer to a problem in the hardware (which would be merely an example of an earlier engineering use) or to a problem with the software, which would seem more like something new and different.


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From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of Shapiro, Fred <fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU>
Sent: Monday, February 13, 2017 10:16 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Question About Grace Murray Hopper As Word-Coiner

---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Poster:       "Shapiro, Fred" <fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU>
Subject:      Question About Grace Murray Hopper As Word-Coiner
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Maybe, in view of the decision my university has made to honor Grace Murray=
 Hopper, I should forget my decades-long debunking of the Hopper "bug" myth=
 and instead emphasize her possible factual claim to word-coining immortali=
ty.  If one considers the specific usage of "bug" applied to computers as a=
n important subsense of the word, as opposed to merely an example of the br=
oader engineering usage, then Hopper may reasonably be considered as the co=
iner of that subsense.  I would welcome input as to whether the computer me=
aning merits a separate subsense.  Oxford and Merriam-Webster do not includ=
e such a subsense.


Fred Shapiro



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From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of MULLIN=
S, WILLIAM D (Bill) CIV USARMY RDECOM AMRDEC (US) <william.d.mullins18.civ@=
MAIL.MIL>
Sent: Monday, February 13, 2017 12:49 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: Grace Murray Hopper Honored by Yale





> -----Original Message-----

> From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf =
Of Shapiro, Fred

> Sent: Sunday, February 12, 2017 5:29 PM

> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU

> Subject: Re: Grace Murray Hopper Honored by Yale

>

>

>

> ----

>

> I was the first to really question the Hopper/moth myth, in several artic=
les beginning in the 1980s.  The definitive citations are given by

> Peggy Kidwell in an article in the IEEE Annals of the History of Computin=
g.  I believe she traced "debugging" back to 1944.

>

> Fred Shapiro

>

>

>



Stalking the elusive computer bug

  P. A. Kidwell

IEEE Annals of the History of Computing

 Year: 1998, Volume: 20, Issue: 4

 Pages: 5 - 9, DOI: 10.1109/85.728224





She cites some other articles of interest, including



F.R. Shapiro, "'The First Bug' Examined," Annals of the History of Computin=
g, vol. 6, no. 2, p. 164, 1984.



and



F.R. Shapiro, "Etymology of the Computer Bug:  History and Folklore," Am. S=
peech, vol. 62, pp 376-378, 1987.



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