A worrying trend

People often complain that there are too many TLAs in IT. We have DVD, RAM, ROM, PCI (MCIA and DSS), WAP, ERP, CRM, PKI, DTS, etc... it's all very TDS. However, I think the reason that so many of us resort to abbreviation is that the alternatives are sometimes too horrifying to put down in type.

When I was in Spain it was common to hear people talk of "plannifying" and "authentification", but as I couldn't speak a word of Spanish apart from "caffe con leche" and "jamon", I kind of let it slide. It is also common to hear and read our American cousins speaking a different form of English to, erm, the English. Think "-or" instead of "-our" and how you pronounce the following words: "pasta" and "pastor". Cross the Atlantic and you pronounce them the other way around. I accept and even celebrate these differences.

However, I've spotted a worrying trend today which I hope to be able to nip in the bud before it becomes too popular and an "accepted failing" that gets into everyday speech. I speak of "deduplification".

Let's get this straight, we "duplicate", and therefore we must "de-duplicate". We do not duplificate, or at least I don't. I expect you could get away with it in Barcelona. If we're going to be making words up though, I prefer the more straightforward "singlification", but I wouldn't want to confuse things...