/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".