Hacker News Reader

Comment by drvdevd | Hacker News Reader

> "bugs"

By which they mean bacteria. I was hoping they meant insects

I understood it to mean insects, and was confused that the article's body talked about bacteria. Like, is this a usage of "bug" I'm not familiar with? Dictionary results talk specifically about insects (and about surveillance electronics)... Ok, Merriam-Webster's 3a here says it can refer to a microorganism of indeterminate nature: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bug

I still think an editor choosing the title should have realized that "insect" is the more common interpretation, and should have chosen a less misleading word.

In the biotech field is indeed quite common to refer to microbes as bugs. Thanks for reminding that this is ambiguous outside the field!

“Bug” meaning “insect” is a North Americanism [0]. The article is from The Guardian in the UK, where the non-insect meaning is the more natural interpretation, particularly in a headline (cf “hospital superbug” for stories about MRSA [1]).

[0] https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/englis... [1] https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/mrsa/

Brit here - context matters, so when I read this headline on HN, which is US-centric, I assumed it meant insects.

But, even if I'd known it was on The Guardian, context still matters, and "bug" feels like an odd choice of word in a sentence like this, where "bacteria" would be more obvious - I have to assume they've chosen "bug" as clickbait. Which has me disappointed with them :/

But even that meaning applies it only to infectious diseases, not all bacteria.

Sadly they probably did realize it and that's exactly why they ran it that way

Nom nom nom... delicious... Coca Cola bottle.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com