Termilisation

Termilisation is a term used in terminology management to describe the process of creating, codifying, and standardizing terms within a domain. The goal is to reduce ambiguity by establishing precise definitions, preferred labels, and explicit relationships among terms. In practice, termilisation involves assembling a term inventory, drafting clear definitions, selecting preferred terms, and linking terms through disambiguation notes, synonyms, and hierarchical relations.

Etymology and usage: the word is formed from term and the -isation suffix, modeling similar processes such as standardisation and normalisation. It is not universally adopted, but is encountered in discussions of terminological governance and knowledge organization.

Process and outputs: practitioners typically include domain experts, librarians, and terminologists. The process may include term collection, definition authorship, scope notes, disambiguation of polysemy, cross-mapping to existing standards, and governance through review cycles. Outputs commonly include glossaries, thesauri, and, in some cases, formal ontologies.

Applications and benefits: termilisation supports scholarly search, data integration, and interoperability across systems. It improves indexing, retrieval, and machine readability, and helps ensure consistent communication in standards documents, manuals, and datasets.

Challenges and criticisms: termilisation requires ongoing resource commitments and careful maintenance to remain current. It can risk terminology fragmentation, cultural or language bias, or rigidity that stifles terminology development. Mitigation strategies include establishing living documents, modular governance, community involvement, and periodic revalidation of terms.

See also: controlled vocabulary, ontology, taxonomy, glossary, terminology management, standardization.