Etymology

superbug

S1U1P3E1R1B3U1G2

Today it means: A strain of bacteria that is resistant to many antibiotics (e.g., MDR, XDR). Full definition →

English bug ← Latin super- ← Proto-Italic *super
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European*úp
  2. Proto-Indo-European*upér
  3. Proto-Italic*super
  4. Latinsuper
  5. Latinsuper-
  6. Englishsuper-
  7. Englishbug
  8. English todaysuperbug

From super- + bug.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.