debug

This term originates from a literal incident involving a moth trapped in a relay of the Harvard Mark II computer, though it now describes a systematic process of logical elimination. It carries a connotation of meticulous, often frustrating labor, implying a cycle of hypothesis, testing, and correction.

In professional software engineering, the word suggests a deeper level of investigation than simply fixing a known error. It encompasses the entire diagnostic phase of identifying why a system is behaving unexpectedly before the actual repair occurs.