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nomonym1248701037and appears on 2 listswas added by denvan and appears on 2 lists
alphabetism1248700691and appears on 4 listswas added by denvan and appears on 4 lists
initialism1248700607and appears on 10 listswas added by denvan and appears on 10 lists
acronym1248699974and appears on 46 listswas added by denvan and appears on 46 lists
About
"Acronyms", "Initialisms", "Alphabetisms","Abbreviations" These are terms that are *supposed* to help us make sense of the confusing world of shortened names, but fail.
Most people use the term "acronym" to apply to the whole lot, but this always leads one uptight wordie in the room to object that the term only applies to abbreviations whose letters form a new word like "scuba" or "NATO", not to mere combinations of first-letters like "IBM", "CIBC", or "TLA".
So this list is a) a compilation of such terms, with the most authoritative definition I can find, and b) a modest proposal offering a new term that may help us clean up this mess (which is FUBAR IMHO). Or not.
Comments
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Noun: A word formed from the initial letters of a name, such as WAC for Women's Army Corps, or by combining initial letters or parts of a series of words, such as radar for radio detecting and ranging. - American Heritage Dictionary
denvan commented on the list begtodiffer-com-words-dealing-with-the-problem-of-abbreviated-names
Clearest definition:
Noun: A word formed from the initial letters of a name, such as WAC for Women's Army Corps, or by combining initial letters or parts of a series of words, such as radar for radio detecting and ranging. - American Heritage Dictionary
http://www.wordnik.com/words/acronym
July 27, 2009
denvan commented on the list begtodiffer-com-words-dealing-with-the-problem-of-abbreviated-names
Merriam-webster cops out on this one by adding the words "an abbrevition (as: FBI)
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/acronym
This is just wrong, since an acronym must at least be a "-nym", that is the name of something.
July 27, 2009
PossibleUnderscore commented on the list begtodiffer-com-words-dealing-with-the-problem-of-abbreviated-names
YES :-) Finally a list of all these things! Thanks denvan!
July 28, 2009
ruzuzu commented on the list begtodiffer-com-words-dealing-with-the-problem-of-abbreviated-names
This is a fun list. Also see the list by tankhughes found here: abbreviations-into-acronyms-QGBtAKUtfn64-q-17Y0TZ.
August 25, 2022