4 Ups And 5 Downs For Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3.4 — A Space Adventure Hour

8. DOWN — Abbreviated Abbreviations

There is an obvious, if often slight, difference between terminology and technology. Having a holodeck in the mid-23rd century is not the problem. Calling it a 'holodeck' is. 

Pike: "The device we're going to be testing is called the… Recreation Room?"

Una: "Holodeck, for short. Sounds better."

That is one hell of a lexical leap — the most curious (hypothetical) etymology:

'Holodeck,' mid-23rd century Federation Standard: abbreviation of 'Recreation Room,' from 'recreation': late Middle English, via Old French from Latin recreation(n-), from recreare 'create again, renew,' + 'room': Old English rūm, of Germanic origin… and so on and so forth. (Source: Oxford English Dictionary/Oxford Dictionary of Federation Standard)

Of course, the point was not to provide any kind of cogent origin story. The point was to get to the word 'holodeck' as quickly as possible. 'Holo' + 'deck' might seem like the most obvious combination. In reality, it only "sounds better" because we've been hearing it for nearly 40 years.

On the whole, A Space Adventure Hour does a good job of anticipating the evolution of holodeck technology. As for the terminology, instead of 'short cut,' we'd have preferred a more circuitous route.