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I have been recently hearing the expression "double clicking" to mean 'going in depth'.
For example:

We will double click on this topic later on when required.

I have never heard of such a usage before. So, I just want to know if it's a common phrase? Any other details regarding its origins, usage etc. will also be helpful.

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  • Aren't the origins fairly easy to guess? Double click on a piece of some webpage, and it opens up and shows you that aspect in more depth.
    – Peter Shor
    Commented Aug 11, 2015 at 13:11
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    As Peter says, the "origin" is trivial. Any any opinions regarding "prevalence" will simply be opinions - OP has obviously encountered the usage before, but I haven't. I don't plan on using it in future either - it sounds seriously geeky to me.
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented Aug 11, 2015 at 13:23
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    @FumbleFingers "Geek" is in now though, Isn't it? To me it actually sounds not so much geeky (which I personally would like) and more the sort of awful managerial jargon of the sort "I enhance core competencies by leveraging platforms." (see dilbert.com/search_results?page=7&terms=buying+friends where I stole it from).
    – DRF
    Commented Aug 11, 2015 at 13:31
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    @PeterShor Websites more often will use single clicks to navigate. Double clicking in websites is not so common. Double clicking comes from desktop computing such as opening folders or applications in MS Windows. For the OP, I do not think it is a common phrase and would recommend using alternatives such drill down or explore
    – Dan
    Commented Aug 11, 2015 at 13:33
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    I suspect not merely corporate manager speak at work here, but corporate sales rep manager speak. It may be just a coincidence, but DoubleClick (now owned by Google) is a major force among companies that serve directed online advertisements to innocent Internet users. In my mind the very verb double-click is tainted.
    – Sven Yargs
    Commented Aug 14, 2015 at 2:01

2 Answers 2

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As a lifelong US person (who does interact with worldwide English through forums such as this one on occasion), I've never heard that usage. I'm also a professional Software Engineer, so you'd think if such a computer-usage metaphor was A Thing, I at least would not be the last to hear it.

I would assume its a metaphor for the action required to open files and programs in a typical WIMP interface.

That doesn't mean its not out there in pockets somewhere. Clearly it is for someone. But I wouldn't throw it at a wider audience just yet.

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  • I am a Software Engineer myself, so i guess that sort of comes by the trade. In fact, the person i have heard it from has been in the industry for 20 or more years.
    – Durga Swaroop
    Commented Aug 12, 2015 at 6:10
  • One double-clicks to open files and programs, yes, but perhaps more to the point, one also double-clicks a "folder" to see its contents.
    – Doug Warren
    Commented Oct 9 at 17:03
  • @DougWarren - Well, I have my desktop set to open files or folders with a single click and have been for a decade, so I guess the metaphor (if it indeed exists) falls down for me there.
    – T.E.D.
    Commented Oct 9 at 17:58
  • Philosophical question: Is this actually a reverse-metaphor rather than a metaphor, since it is accomplished by unrolling the UI metaphor that WIMP GUI designers set up?
    – T.E.D.
    Commented Oct 9 at 18:06
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Yes, it's now (2024) common at least in the corporate world.

It may have been used since the 1990s.

From "Let’s ‘Double-Click’ on the Latest Cringeworthy Corporate Buzzword" (Wall Street Journal, 2024-07-09)

One of the fastest-spreading corporate buzzwords in recent years, “double-click” is both polarizing and pervasive. Particularly on Wall Street, the figure of speech is now being used as a shorthand for examining something more fully, akin to double-clicking to see a computer folder’s contents. ...

Executives and analysts dropped double-click 644 times in corporate conference calls and events during the first half of [2024], according to VIQ Solutions, up from 139 times in the same period of 2020. ...

Tech-inflected buzzwords are especially apt to gain traction—think “network,” “bandwidth” or “take offline”—because they can sound smart or cutting-edge ...

Double-click has a long pedigree in the sales world. Matt Sunshine, head of the Center for Sales Strategy, which trains salespeople, says when he sold ad spots for a local radio station in Dallas in the 1990s, peers commonly used the term.

“Sales leaders would say, ‘Hey, you need to make sure you double-click on that’ with your prospects,” Sunshine says, meaning delve more deeply into any issues customers might raise, as in “Tell me more.”

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