A series of connected pipes used to transport liquids or gases over long distances, or metaphorically, a system for processing or developing things in stages.
Compound: 'pipe' (from Old French, from Latin 'pipa') plus 'line.' The metaphorical use for processing became common in 20th-century business and tech language.
The metaphorical 'pipeline' is brilliant—companies talk about a 'pipeline of new products' or colleges about a 'pipeline of students,' borrowing engineering language to describe development processes!
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