Initialisms

[robgul]

They are all from the EAM - European Acronym Mountain

astonishing .... if you Google "acronym" somewhere there is a massive resource that someone as compiled

Rob

Edit: The word "astonishing" has been substituted by the forum's profanasaurus component for a 3 letter acronym with a W as first letter . . .

[Brucey]

**pedant alert**

Acronym has a specific meaning in that the abbreviation is made up of the first letter of each word, and the result is a new word. So for example 'NASA' is an acronym, but if you were to pronounce it 'en-eh-ess-eh' it would be an intitialism.

Most of the abbreviations under discussion are initialisms not acronyms.

cheers

[Cyril Haearn]

I do love acronyms that have two or more meanings

[nirakaro]

** further pedant alert**

**pedant alert**

Acronym has a specific meaning in that the abbreviation is made up of the first letter of each word, and the result is a new word. So for example 'NASA' is an acronym, but if you were to pronounce it 'en-eh-ess-eh' it would be an intitialism.

Most of the abbreviations under discussion are initialisms not acronyms.

cheers

I suspect that this is a case where the dictionaries – and thus the pedants – are wrong. Meaning, as you have said in the past Brucey, comes from usage, and certainly in the world I inhabit, everybody would refer to BBC, STD etc., (and TLA (three letter acronym)), as acronyms.

[Brucey]

I think some dictionaries are starting to include the 'wrong' meaning of the word acronym, because it is so widespread. Without acronym we wouldn't have bacronym…

cheers

[scottg]

TLA = 3 letter acronym

STI = Shimano Triple Incompatible
SPD = Simplex Pedaling Dynamics
AASHTA = As Always Sheldon Has the Answer
SRAM = Service, Replace Almost Monthly

[simonhill]

.....and they change.

STD used to mean something to do with telephones, now it is a nasty itch. Whereas std, often means standard.

Define then use, or don't and confuse.

[The utility cyclist]

I think some dictionaries are starting to include the 'wrong' meaning of the word acronym, because it is so widespread. Without acronym we wouldn't have bacronym…

cheers

No, they aren't wrong, dictionaries themselves change with popular use/acceptance in modern language, thus they are correct in changing the meaning of acronym as people adapt and accept it in common use.
This is what nirakaro was saying.

[Chris Jeggo]

STD used to mean something to do with telephones, now it is a nasty itch. Whereas std, often means standard.

That STD has now morphed to STI, which is still a nasty itch .... to, er, spend money on handlebar bling?

TLA = three-letter abbreviation, BTW.

The 'onym' of acronym comes from the Greek for 'name' (other common instances are synonym and pseudonym), so it should be a pronounceable word, but not necessarily an initialism - e.g. radar = radio detection and ranging.

[Chris Jeggo]

I think some dictionaries are starting to include the 'wrong' meaning of the word acronym, because it is so widespread. Without acronym we wouldn't have bacronym…

cheers

No, they aren't wrong, dictionaries themselves change with popular use/acceptance in modern language, thus they are correct in changing the meaning of acronym as people adapt and accept it in common use.
This is what nirakaro was saying.

Brucey did not say the dictionaries are wrong; indeed he put the word 'wrong' in quotes. I sympathise with him regarding usage. When two words have similar but distinct meanings it reduces the power of the language for precise expression when incorrect use becomes widespread.

[The utility cyclist]

I think some dictionaries are starting to include the 'wrong' meaning of the word acronym, because it is so widespread. Without acronym we wouldn't have bacronym…

cheers

No, they aren't wrong, dictionaries themselves change with popular use/acceptance in modern language, thus they are correct in changing the meaning of acronym as people adapt and accept it in common use.
This is what nirakaro was saying.

Brucey did not say the dictionaries are wrong; indeed he put the word 'wrong' in quotes. I sympathise with him regarding usage. When two words have similar but distinct meanings it reduces the power of the language for precise expression when incorrect use becomes widespread.

We'll beg to differ on that, he clearly said they were including the wrong meaning, it's not 'wrong' or wrong if it is in fact the accepted use, it has therefore changed in meaning because of popularity.

[Cyril Haearn]

.....and they change.

STD used to mean something to do with telephones, now it is a nasty itch. Whereas std, often means standard.

Define then use, or don't and confuse.

Registration marks are fun, in one small town in Germany all vehicles are 'STD', standard trunk dialling

[cyclop]

More to the point, what do the user names on these fora signify?

Fairly obvious this one....one eyed cyclist.Not joking,lost it when I was 8yrs old,throwing stones as you do on the way home from school.

[freiston]

I like self-referencing acronyms - like the Linux facility for running Windows programmes: "WINE" which stands for Wine Is Not (an) Emulator. That particular example is classified as a recursive backronym by Wikipedia.

[freiston]

No, they aren't wrong, dictionaries themselves change with popular use/acceptance in modern language, thus they are correct in changing the meaning of acronym as people adapt and accept it in common use.
This is what nirakaro was saying.

Brucey did not say the dictionaries are wrong; indeed he put the word 'wrong' in quotes. I sympathise with him regarding usage. When two words have similar but distinct meanings it reduces the power of the language for precise expression when incorrect use becomes widespread.

We'll beg to differ on that, he clearly said they were including the wrong meaning, it's not 'wrong' or wrong if it is in fact the accepted use, it has therefore changed in meaning because of popularity.

I hate the misuse of "literally", which, I recall hearing, has caused one dictionary to include its use as an intensifier adverb.

I understand that the word "nice" used to mean stupid or foolish - which makes the phrase "awfully nice but dim" a bit of a repetition.