GLITCH

noun and verb (Science and Technology) In slang (originally in the US): noun: A snag, a hitch or hold-up; a technical error. intransitive verb: To malfunction or go wrong; to suffer a 'hiccup'. Etymology: A figurative use of a word that originally (in the early sixties) meant 'a surge of current'--an occurrence which could lead to unpredictable behaviour from electronic instruments or even complete crashes of computer systems. The word's ultimate origins are rather obscure: it has been claimed that it is borrowed from Yiddish glitsch, which means 'a slip' in its literal sense of losing one's footing, but this theory has been discredited. History and Usage: As mentioned above, glitch was first used in the early sixties, mainly in the slang of people involved in the US space programme. From there it was taken into computing slang, and by the early eighties had become a fashionable word in the general press for any kind of snag or hold-up, as well as developing more specialized meanings in astronomy and audio recording. It is now used freely in the media in the UK as well as the US, but is still regarded as an Americanism by many British readers. Glitch has a derived adjective glitchy which can be used of programs, systems, etc. that are particularly prone to malfunction. Elsewhere, equipment glitches in the Iranian desert force American commandos to abort the mission to rescue 53 hostages in Tehran. Life Fall 1989, p. 15 The only glitch in the whole Ararat countdown was the failure to get the Project recognized as a charitable institution. Julian Barnes A History of the World in 10Ì Chapters (1989), p. 267 No matter how carefully I set the unit up it always glitched a little, especially when using the Diatonic Shift. Music Technology Apr. 1990, p. 42