Underreplicate

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To reproduce or copy something fewer times than needed, so that the resulting sample or experiment is insufficient
2. Making too few copies of genetic material or an experimental result, leaving the replication incomplete or inadequate
3. Failing to duplicate a sample, dataset or finding to the degree required for reliable confirmation

Etymology: "Underreplicate" is a plain formation: the prefix "under-" (meaning insufficiently or too little, as in "undercook" or "underestimate") attached to "replicate." The base verb comes from Latin "replicare," meaning "to fold back" or "to unfold," from "re-" (back) and "plicare" (to fold), a root that also gave English "ply" and "complicate." Over time "replicate" shifted from the sense of folding or doubling back to the sense of making a copy or repeating an action, which is the meaning "underreplicate" builds on. So the compound describes a process that happens too seldom: a sequence of copies or repetitions that falls short of what is needed. The word is most often used in technical settings such as biology and computing, where a sequence of DNA or data may fail to be copied as many times as expected.