Dokumenteer

Dokumenteer is a verb used primarily in Afrikaans and in some Dutch-language contexts. Its core meaning is to record information or evidence in a structured and verifiable way, by creating or gathering documents, notes, or other records that support a claim, process, or event. The term denotes both the act of creating documentation and the resulting documents themselves in some usages.

Origin and spelling: The Afrikaans infinitive is dokumenteer, derived from Dutch roots related to documenteren or the Latin documentum. In standard Dutch, the corresponding verb is documenteren. Afrikaans preserves the dokumenteer spelling, and it is often seen in texts with Afrikaans influence or in regions where Afrikaans usage is prominent. Some Dutch writers may use dokumenteer as a stylistic variant or in historical or cross-language contexts.

Usage and contexts: Dokumenteer is commonly used in journalism, academia, information technology, law, and archival science, as well as in project management and compliance work, where thorough documentation is essential for accountability, reproducibility, and auditability. In IT and software development, the term can describe the creation of documentation for systems, processes, or code, ensuring that procedures and specifications are clearly recorded for future reference.

Related terms: The broader concept is documentation, which encompasses the materials and records produced during documentation activities. Related processes include recordkeeping, archiving, and labeling, all aimed at preserving information for traceability and evidence.

See also: Documentation, document, archiving, recordkeeping, documentation standards.