Underdeciding

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. Choosing or deciding on something without having enough information or evidence to be confident
2. Arriving at a conclusion or selecting an option based on incomplete or inadequate data
3. Making a determination or decision when the available information is insufficient to ensure correctness

Etymology: "Underdeciding" is a compound formed from the prefix "under-" and "deciding," the present participle of "decide." It is not a word with a dramatic backstory; it is a transparent formation, and its meaning follows directly from its parts. "Under-" in this sense means insufficiently or too little, as in "underestimate" or "undercook," so "underdeciding" describes reaching a conclusion with too little supporting evidence. The term is most often used in philosophy and the study of science, where it is employed in the phrase "underdetermination." In that context, a theory is said to be underdetermined by the evidence when several rival theories fit the same data equally well. The shorter "underdeciding" is a looser verbal form of the same idea, but it is not a standard dictionary headword with an established history, so its exact date of first use is not something I can confirm.