glitch

Etymology

Probably from Yiddish גליטש (glitsh), from German glitschig (“slippy”), from glitsch (“slide, glide, slip”) + -ig (“-y”). Related to gleiten (“glide”). Cognate with French glisser (“to slip, to slide, to skid”). Popularized 1960s, by US space program. Attested 1962 by American astronaut John Glenn, in reference to spikes in electrical current.

noun

1. (countable) A problem affecting function.
   They are still trying to work out all the glitches.
   Glitches—a spaceman’s word for irritating disturbances. 1965, Time magazine
   A déjà vu is usually a glitch in the Matrix. It happens when they change something. 1999, The Wachowski Brothers, The Matrix (motion picture), spoken by Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss)
   Some claimed on Monday that Foodpanda's account deletion system reported being under maintenance and could not process their request. It is unclear if the flock of requests had created a system failure, or Foodpanda had cut access on purpose, or the timing was merely a coincidence. The glitch only added fuel to online sympathizers' outrage. 2021-07-20, Masayuki Yuda, “Foodpanda faces backlash after calling Thai protest 'terrorism'”, in Nikkei Asia, Nikkei Inc, retrieved 2021-07-20
2. (countable, informal, engineering) An unexpected behavior in an electrical signal, especially if the signal spontaneously returns to expected behavior after a period of time.
   Another term we adopted to describe some of our problems was "glitch." Literally, a glitch is a spike or change in voltage in an electrical circuit which takes place when the circuit suddenly has a new load put on it. You have probably noticed a dimming of lights in your home when you turn a switch or start the dryer or the television set. 1962, John Glenn, Into Orbit, London: Cassell
3. (video games) A bug or an exploit.
   Performing this glitch gives you extra lives.
4. (uncountable, music) A genre of experimental electronic music since the 1990s, characterized by a deliberate use of sonic artifacts that would normally be viewed as unwanted noise.
   Coordinate term: noise
   You can hear this in the contemporary genre of ‘glitch’, where artists like Oval and Fennesz make radically beautiful music using the snaps, crackles and pops emitted by damaged CDs, malfunctioning software, etc. 2011, Simon Reynolds, Bring the Noise: 20 Years of Writing About Hip Rock and Hip Hop, Soft Skull Press, page 313
5. (astronomy, countable) A sudden increase in the rotational frequency of a pulsar.

verb

1. (intransitive, especially of machines) To experience an unexpected, typically intermittent malfunction.
   My computer keeps glitching; every couple of hours it just reboots without warning.
   Jake’s parents, played unnervingly well by Colette and Thewlis, are like alien robots who have been programmed to behave like human beings, but keep glitching. 1 September 2020, Nicholas Barber, “Five stars for I'm Thinking of Ending Things”, in BBC
2. (intransitive, video games) To perform an exploit or recreate a bug while playing a video game.
   His character will glitch into the wall and out of the level.