Backlogging

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. The practice of allowing tasks to pile up while postponing their completion results in an increasing workload
2. The process by which tasks or orders build up without being addressed promptly
3. A situation where pending work or demands increase due to delayed handling

Etymology: Before it meant a pile of unfinished work, "backlog" was a physical object: a large log set at the back of a hearth fire to keep the flames burning slowly. The word first appears in the 1680s, built from "back" and "log" in its plainest senses. The log at the back of the fire was a reserve that kept heat going long after the kindling had burned out, and the image of something held in reserve for later use is what carried over into English figurative speech. That figurative sense emerged in the 1880s, when "backlog" came to mean something stored up for later use, and it was the business world that pushed the word toward its modern sense of accumulated pending work. A possible influence from "logbook," with its sense of a record of entries awaiting attention, may also have shaped the later usage. "Backlogging" is the present participle and gerund of "backlog," so it describes the ongoing process of work piling up behind a delay.

Synonyms: accumulating, delaying, postponing, deferring, holding up

Antonyms: processing, completing, fulfilling, executing, advancing