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xnihil
Joined: 06 May 2003
Posts: 92
Location: Egypt
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 Posted: Thu Jul 03, 2003 7:18 pm Post subject: |
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Wow, that was a bit harsh capergirl.
I wasn't trying to insult you and I'm sorry if you took it that way.
It's just that two people made the same mistake and I happen to think word differentiations like that are interesting.
I actually need to correct myself as well.
I wrote abbreviations but I meant to write initials.
Its only an acronym if you pronounce it as a word. Scuba is an acronym, FBI are the initials.
Pompous A ss on the other hand is something entirely different |
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Capergirl
Joined: 02 Feb 2003
Posts: 1232
Location: Nova Scotia, Canada
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| Posted: Fri Jul 04, 2003 12:09 pm Post subject: |
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| xnihil wrote: |
Wow, that was a bit harsh capergirl.
I wasn't trying to insult you and I'm sorry if you took it that way.
It's just that two people made the same mistake and I happen to think word differentiations like that are interesting.
I actually need to correct myself as well.
I wrote abbreviations but I meant to write initials.
Its only an acronym if you pronounce it as a word. Scuba is an acronym, FBI are the initials.
Pompous A ss on the other hand is something entirely different |
You're right...I did take it as an insult. That "I hope nobody tries to call them acronyms" comment was a bit condescending from where I am sitting. Nonetheless, perhaps I'm just a bit on the defensive since there has been so much silliness on this site over correct grammar and vocabulary usage. At times, it appears that someone has committed a crime of great magnitude in making minor grammatical, spelling, or punctuation errors in their posts. Anagram, acronym, abbreviation...even native speakers get them mixed up sometimes. Being a teacher doesn't make one omniscient or infallible. In any case, I apologize for my "anagram" slam. 
FYI, according to whatis.techtarget.com, you are correct.  Shortened forms like LOL, BRB, etc. are initialisms, not acronyms. I guess we've all learned something new today. 
acronym
An acronym (pronounced AK-ruh-nihm, from Greek acro- in the sense of extreme or tip and onyma or name) is an abbreviation of several words in such a way that the abbreviation itself forms a word. According to Webster's, the word doesn't have to already exist; it can be a new word. Webster's cites "snafu" and "radar", two terms of World War Two vintage, as examples. Implicit is the idea that the new word has to be pronounceable and ideally easy to remember.
Frequently, acronyms are formed that use existing words (and sometimes the acronym is invented first and the phrase name represented is designed to fit the acronym). Here are some examples of acronyms that use existing words:
BASIC....Beginner's All-Purpose Symbolic Instruction Code
NOW......National Organization for Women
WHO......World Health Organization
Abbreviations that use the first letter of each word in a phrase are sometimes referred to as initialisms. Initialisms can be but are not always acronyms. AT&T, BT, CBS, CNN, IBM, and NBC are initialisms that are not acronyms. Many acronym lists you'll see are really lists of acronyms and initialisms or just lists of abbreviations. (Note that abbreviations include shortened words like "esp" for "especially" as well as shortened phrases.)
Summing up:
An abbreviation is a shortening of a word or a phrase.
An acronym is an abbreviation that forms a word.
An initialism is an abbreviation that uses the first letter of each word in the phrase (thus, some but not all initialisms are acronyms).
By the way, an acronym so familiar that no one remembers what it stands for is called an anacronym.
ACRONYM: Abbreviated Coded Rendition Of Name Yielding Meaning |
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C76
Joined: 13 Jun 2003
Posts: 113
Location: somewhere between beauty and truth...in Toronto. ;)
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| Posted: Fri Jul 04, 2003 12:38 pm Post subject: |
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| xnihil wrote: |
I'm surprised nobody has pointed this out yet. LMAO,
LMAO, IMHO, ROTFL and others are abbreviations (I hope nobody tries to call them acronyms). |
Oh dear. Does this mean I'm going to ESL Hell? 
I just referred to IMO as an acronym in a post in the Newbie forum.
Last edited by C76 on Fri Jul 04, 2003 1:25 pm; edited 2 times in total |
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johnslat
Joined: 21 Jan 2003
Posts: 13859
Location: Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA
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| Posted: Fri Jul 04, 2003 12:38 pm Post subject: Do you have a Jimz? |
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Here's a regional quirk that's relevant, I think, to this topic. When I first came to Saudi Arabia, I heard students talking about their " Jimz " cars.
" What kind of car do you have? "
" Oh, I have a Jimz. "
At first, I though it might be some Korean or Japanese brand I'd never heard of before. Then, one day I discovered the " Jimz " was actually
GMC = General Motors Corporation
Initials had become an acronym.
Regards,
John |
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Steiner
Joined: 21 Apr 2003
Posts: 573
Location: Hunan China
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| Posted: Fri Jul 04, 2003 6:33 pm Post subject: |
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| Sunaru, your signature makes me laugh out loud every time I read it. Is it from Shrek? |
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