glitch n.

in phrase a glitch in the matrix: in the 1999 film The Matrix: an anomaly in the virtual representation of reality in which much of the film takes place, indicating a change or error in the underlying computer simulation; (hence, broadly) a mistake, an error, a problem

  • 1998 Wachowski & Wachowski The Matrix (shooting script, 29 Mar.) 77 page image

    A deja vu is usually a glitch in the Matrix. It happens when they change something.

  • 2000 R. K. Moore Escaping the Matrix in Whole Earth Summer 53/2

    Growing glitches in the matrix weren’t noticed by most people in the West, because the postwar years brought unprecedented levels of Western prosperity and social progress.

  • 2001 American Spectator Sept.–Oct. 10/2

    But that there is something — an essence in the invisible, a ghost in the machine, or simple [sic] a glitch in the matrix — there can be no mistake.

  • 2003 Wall Street Journal 7 Nov. w1/1 (headline)

    Big Glitch in the Matrix: ‘Revolutions’ Ends Trilogy On a Joyless, Feeble Note.

  • 2008 M. Dery McClellan’s ‘Matrix’ Moment in L.A. Times 7 June a23/2 Mark Dery

    It is a White House whose solution to every unhappy turn of events—the Iraqi insurgency, Hurricane Katrina, a moribund economy—is to treat it not as a real-world problem requiring a real-world solution but as a glitch in the Matrix, ‘a perception problem’ to be handled with the Message of the Day and the Theme of the Week.

  • 2015 Fortean Times Dec. 4/1 page image

    Explanations for the event ranged from a glitch in the matrix, alternate universes opening up, and NASA attempting to establish a new world order headed up by the Antichrist by simulating — by means of holograms — either an alien invasion of Earth or Christ’s Second Coming, through something called the ‘Blue Beam Project’.

  • 2021 S. Marie February Horoscope in Essence Jan.–Feb. 89

    You may find yourself incredibly frustrated with verbal misunderstandings or technical snafus. Don’t worry. It’s a temporary glitch in the matrix; all will be back to normal soon.

Research requirements

antedating 1998
Research History
Suggested, and most cites supplied, by Bill Mullins.

Last modified 2021-12-22 14:03:47
In the compilation of some entries, HDSF has drawn extensively on corresponding entries in OED.