<jargon> /kree'ping fee'chr-izm/ (Or "feature creep") A systematic tendency to load more chrome and features onto systems at the expense of whatever elegance they may have possessed when originally designed. "The main problem with BSD Unix has always been creeping featurism." More generally, creeping featurism is the tendency for anything to become more complicated because people keep saying "Gee, it would be even better if it had this feature too". The result is usually a patchwork because it grew one ad-hoc step at a time, rather than being planned. Planning is a lot of work, but it's easy to add just one extra little feature to help someone, and then another, and another, .... When creeping featurism gets out of hand, it's like a cancer. Usually this term is used to describe computer programs, but it could also be said of the federal government, the IRS 1040 form, and new cars. A similar phenomenon sometimes afflicts conscious redesigns; see second-system effect. See also creeping elegance. [Jargon File] (1997-08-03)

<jargon> /kree'ping fee'-chr-i:'t*s/ A variant of {creeping featurism}, with its own spoonerism: "feeping creaturitis". Some people like to reserve this form for the disease as it actually manifests in software or hardware, as opposed to the lurking general tendency in designers' minds. -ism means "condition" or "pursuit of", whereas -itis usually means "inflammation of". [Jargon File] (1997-08-03)

A disease carried by management and sales. Caught by projects (exp. software) when m/s decide to add unnecessary features to give a product unique selling points.
That new gizmo has developed acute featuritis.

creeping featurism

/fee'ping kree"ch*r-izm/ A deliberate spoonerism for {creeping featurism}, meant to imply that the system or program in question has become a misshapen creature of hacks. This term isn"t really well defined, but it sounds so neat that most hackers have said or heard it. It is probably reinforced by an image of terminals prowling about in the dark making their customary noises.

Ranunculus repens, the creeping buttercup, is a flowering plant in the buttercup family Ranunculaceae, native to Europe, Asia and northwestern Africa.Ranunculus repens L.

Holcus mollis, known as creeping soft grass or creeping velvet grass, is a species of grass, native to Europe and western Asia.

Liriope spicata is a species of low, herbaceous flowering plant from East Asia. Common names include creeping lilyturf, creeping liriope, lilyturf, and monkey grass.

Creeping Bent, The Creeping Bent Organisation, is an independent record label set up by Douglas MacIntyre in 1994, based in Glasgow, Scotland. The label has been described as a successor to earlier Scottish indie labels Postcard Records and Fast Product.