Difference between "bug" "issue" "problem" [closed]
Any ideas what are the difference is of the three words?
Thanks for answer
There is great overlap in the meanings.
Bug starts as
OED
I. An insect or other arthropod.
1 Any small insect or larva that is considered to be a pest. Also more widely (now chiefly U.S.): any insect or other small arthropod (e.g. a spider or centipede),
1594 Hester's Pearle of Pract. i. xxxii. 14 This medecine caused many times, a certaine blacke bugge, or worme to come forth which had many legs, & was quicke.
It becomes in extended use
- derogatory. A contemptible or dishonest person. In later use chiefly: an annoying person; a pest, a nuisance.
[1771 T. Smollett Humphry Clinker I. 225 [One writer] who presumed to make strictures upon one of his performances, he holds as a bug in criticism, whose stench is more offensive than his sting.]
The idea of a pest then developed further:
- colloquial (originally U.S.).a. A person with an obsessive or enthusiastic interest in something. Frequently with modifying word indicating the object of obsession or enthusiasm.
1841 Congress. Globe June 133 Mr. Alford of Georgia warned the ‘tariff bugs’ of the South that..he would read them out of church.
The next development was the extension from insects to bacteria/germs:
- colloquial (originally U.S.).a. A harmful microorganism or virus; a germ.
1885 Trans. Mich. State Med. Soc. 9 177 He..Knew all the mysteries of bacterian skill, /And never let a micrococcus grow / When he had ample power the bug to kill.
This extended to machines:
- Originally U.S. a. A defect or fault in a machine (esp. an electrical or electronic one), or in a process, etc.
1875 Operator 15 Aug. 5/1 The biggest ‘bug’ yet has been discovered in the U.S. Hotel Electric Annunciator.
1952 Rev. Electronic Digital Computers (Amer. Inst. Electr. Engineers) 18/2 The week we spent in getting the last bug out of our instruction program was an investment we hated to have to make.
Now we see the modern meaning of the word: something small that is a nuisance as it causes something else to function badly, be it a person or a machine.
Issue starts in the 14th century with the verb “to issue”
I. To emerge, arise; to come out or come forth.
An issue can be anything from the issue of water from a spring to the issue of children from a woman. Issue thus described anything that resulted from something appearing.
The significant meaning however was a legal one that was first recorded in the 15th century
14. A matter which remains to be decided; a significant matter for debate or discussion.
1429–30 Rolls of Parl.: Henry VI (Electronic ed.) Parl. Sept. 1429 §30. m. 9 What issue that is triable by inquest in the said forest and hundreds..that it be tried by inquest of the corps of the said shire.
In this meaning “an issue” – that which came out of an action by someone - was almost synonymous with “a cause”, and that demanded some action by the court or anyone else wishing to rectify the matter.
Thus we have: something upon which action is required.
Finally, we have
Problem, which was originally: †1.a. A puzzle; a riddle; an enigmatic statement. Now obsolete.
which became
3.a. A difficult or demanding question; (now, more usually) a matter or situation regarded as unwelcome, harmful, or wrong and needing to be overcome; a difficulty.
Thus, none of the words are particularly precise. The difference, where it exists, is in the nuances:
A bug is informal. It implies a malfunction in a machine or system: it is the equivalent of a disease in a creature or plant.
An issue is an apparent defect and the word implies that the defect should be addressed.
A problem is (i) a defect that either has (or appears at first glance to have) no immediate solution and/or explanation or (ii) a circumstance that will cause difficulties.