superbugn.
/ˈs(j)uːpəbʌɡ/, U.S. /ˈsupərˌbəɡ/ 1.
a. An exceptionally vigorous or pathogenic microorganism (cf. bug n.2 6a); (in later use) spec. a bacterium that has become resistant to antibiotics.In hyperbolical use in quot. 1916.
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1916 N.Y. Med. Jrnl. 23 Sept. 622/1 Bugs are not superhuman any more than witches are. Man is a superbug, becomes so by concentrated acquisition and harmonious exercise of organized calcium and phosphorus.
1945 B. Sokoloff Story of Penicillin v. 96 A bowl of chicken broth most surely will catch some of these fast-growing super-bugs.
1977 Washington Post 29 Sept. f2/2 A superbug that can't be touched by teramycin [sic] or other antibiotics.
2006 Metro 26 Oct. (London ed.) 4/1 Up to a fifth of clinical staff fail to wash themselves between patients, despite evidence it spreads the superbug MRSA.
b. A naturally occurring or artificially produced microorganism having properties that make it potentially useful to industry.
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the world > life > biology > organism > micro-organism > [noun] > specific type of
intestinal flora1893
gut flora1936
superbug1959
pathotype1961
methylotroph1972
pathovar1975
1959 Wall St. Jrnl. 6 Feb. 1/5 Private and Governmental researchers are breeding whole new ‘races’ of microbes. These ‘super bugs’ are being groomed to do such varied jobs as helping find, recover and refine oil.
1975 Economist 20 Sept. 103/1 GE has taken the genes that determine the bacteria's eating habits from four different species and injected them into one superbug, which happily eats about two-thirds of the hydrocarbons in an oil spill.
1986 New Scientist 31 July 25 Horikoshi's team is scouring very hot, salty or alkaline places all over the world for other ‘superbugs’. These are defined as having new abilities, like halophilicity, which are of potential use to industry.
2007 D. Beerling Emerald Planet iii. 45 Laboratory experiments revealed super-bugs capable of digesting 365-million-year-old organic matter present in shale.
2. An insect (cf. bug n.2 1) which is superior to others in some way; an insect that is difficult to eradicate or control, esp. one that has become resistant to insecticides.
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1925 Los Angeles Times 24 July i. 3/3 (advt.) Insect World Brings Out New ‘Model’... John Steven McGroarty, in his inimitable page in the Sunday Times Magazine, says he has discovered a—well, it can't be anything but a 1926 superbug.
1945 E. W. Teale Lost Woods xvi. 182 Here you have Superbug, himself! During 100,000,000 years, the cockroach has been a winner.
1951 La Crosse (Wisconsin) Tribune 25 Apr. 4/2 By using DDT now, we are helping to breed ‘super bugs’ for the future.
1985 New Yorker 3 June 68/1 The fleas would come back. People in cities had roaches, super-bugs resistant to chemicals.
2009 E. Cooke Grocery Garden i. 5 We're losing a lot of genetic diversity in our staples, making us more vulnerable to some superbug that can wipe out a whole segment of our food supply.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2012; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1916