See pattern.

The “filmed assault” sense dates from the 2020s.

1. Present participle and gerund of pattern

patterning

1. A pattern; the production of a pattern; the process of forming a pattern.
   • 2015, Kim Williams, Michael J. Ostwald, Architecture and Mathematics from Antiquity to the Future, page 460:

     Any system of geometric patterning that covers or fills a surface using a finite set of shapes is considered tiling in a mathematical sense.

2. Emulation, following as a model; frequently with after.
3. (This is a hot sense, kept provisionally) (UK, slang, neologism, uncountable) An assault or act of humiliation that is deliberately filmed to be shared on social media.

   Coordinate term: happy slapping

   • 2022 September 1, Ed Thomas, Child assaults: ‘If the police won’t do their job, we’ll do it for them’‎:

     Filming such violence and humiliation, and then sharing it online, has become known by the term "patterning" - with the aim of embarrassing victims even further by forwarding the videos across the web.