A contest among UNIX geeks in which they compete to find the smallest possible number of keystrokes required to perform given tasks in their favorite shell. Since tab completion is one of the primary tactics in this competition, the contests have become known as a tab completition. Other attempts at combining words to form a better name failed, as none of the proposed alternate titles caught on - including "Meta Keyntest" (meta-key contest) and "Archerkey" (a bad pun on the use of arrow keys).
The Society for the Prevention Of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome had proposed holding an international championship contest, but plans are currently stuck in an financial quagmire due to the bankruptcy of most of the dot-com companies who had offered to sponsor it.
Speculation that the name originated as a typo for
tab completion made by a horny geek who was too busy thinking about tits has been spread widely, but
is impossible to prove or disprove.