enAanduiding

enAanduiding is a term used in discussions of metadata design and information architecture to describe a way of expressing multiple attributes within a single designation by inserting the Dutch conjunction en (and) between attributes. The term is not widely standardized and occurs mainly in Dutch-language sources.

Etymologically, enAanduiding combines en with aanduiding, meaning designation or indication, to signal that the label refers to more than one property. In practice, it functions as a compact multi-attribute tag that can simplify labeling in certain datasets or vocabularies.

In implementation, enAanduiding may appear in controlled vocabularies, search interfaces, or ontologies as a single token that encodes two or more attributes. It can facilitate cross-domain search but may hinder machine readability unless paired with explicit mappings to separate fields or semantic relations.

Typical domains include multilingual metadata, product catalogs, or administrative records where compact labeling is favored. Examples might resemble enBehandeling enStatus, indicating both treatment and status attributes in a single label.

Critics argue that enAanduiding reduces clarity, increases ambiguity in translation, and complicates automated parsing. Proponents note its usefulness for human-readable compact labels and propose standards for when and how to apply it, including explicit documentation and robust mapping to structured data.

See also: metadata, controlled vocabulary, ontologies, multi-valued fields.