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glitch      /glɪtʃ/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[glich] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation Slang.

–noun

1.	a defect or malfunction in a machine or plan.

2.	Computers. any error, malfunction, or problem. Compare bug1 (def. 5).

3.	a brief or sudden interruption or surge in voltage in an electric circuit.

–verb (used with object)

4.	to cause a glitch in: an accident that glitched our plans.

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[Origin: 1960–65; perh. < Yiddish glitsh slippery area; cf. glitshn, G glitschen to slip, slide]

glitch       (glĭch)  Pronunciation Key  n.   A minor malfunction, mishap, or technical problem; a snag: a computer glitch; a navigational glitch; a glitch in the negotiations. A false or spurious electronic signal caused by a brief, unwanted surge of electric power. Astronomy A sudden change in the period of rotation of a neutron star. [Probably from Yiddish glitsh, a slip, lapse, from glitshn, to slip, from Middle High German glitschen, alteration of glīten, to glide, from Old High German glītan; see ghel-2 in Indo-European roots.] glitch'y adj. Word History: Although glitch seems a word that people would always have found useful, it is first recorded in English in 1962 in the writing of John Glenn: "Another term we adopted to describe some of our problems was 'glitch.' " Glenn then gives the technical sense of the word the astronauts had adopted: "Literally, a glitch is a spike or change in voltage in an electrical current." It is easy to see why the astronauts, who were engaged in a highly technical endeavor, might have generalized a term from electronics to cover other technical problems. Since then glitch has passed beyond technical use and now covers a wide variety of malfunctions and mishaps.

glitch
/glich/ [German "glitschen" to slip, via Yiddish "glitshen", to slide or skid] 1. (Electronics) When the inputs of a circuit change, and the outputs change to some random value for some very brief time before they settle down to the correct value. If another circuit inspects the output at just the wrong time, reading the random value, the results can be very wrong and very hard to debug (a glitch is one of many causes of electronic heisenbugs).
2. A sudden interruption in electric service, sanity, continuity, or program function. Sometimes recoverable. An interruption in electric service is specifically called a "power glitch" (or power hit), of grave concern because it usually crashes all the computers. See also gritch.
2. [Stanford] To scroll a display screen, especially several lines at a time. WAITS terminals used to do this in order to avoid continuous scrolling, which is distracting to the eye.
4. Obsolete. Same as magic cookie.
[The Jargon File]

glitch

/glich/ [very common; from German `glitschig' to slip, via Yiddish `glitshen', to slide or skid] 1. n. A sudden interruption in electric service, sanity, continuity, or program function. Sometimes recoverable. An interruption in electric service is specifically called a `power glitch' (also power hit), of grave concern because it usually crashes all the computers. In jargon, though, a hacker who got to the middle of a sentence and then forgot how he or she intended to complete it might say, "Sorry, I just glitched". 2. vi. To commit a glitch. See gritch. 3. vt. [Stanford] To scroll a display screen, esp. several lines at a time. WAITS terminals used to do this in order to avoid continuous scrolling, which is distracting to the eye. 4. obs. Same as magic cookie, sense 2.

All these uses of `glitch' derive from the specific technical meaning the term has in the electronic hardware world, where it is now techspeak. A glitch can occur when the inputs of a circuit change, and the outputs change to some random value for some very brief time before they settle down to the correct value. If another circuit inspects the output at just the wrong time, reading the random value, the results can be very wrong and very hard to debug (a glitch is one of many causes of electronic heisenbugs).

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