Acronyms and initialisms are
abbreviationAn abbreviation is a shortened form of a word or phrase. Usually, but not always, it consists of a letter or group of letters taken from the word or phrase...
s formed from the initial components in a phrase or a word. These components may be individual letters (as in CEO) or parts of words (as in
BeneluxThe Benelux is an economic union in Western Europe comprising three neighbouring countries, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg. These countries are located in northwestern Europe between France and Germany...
and
AmeslanAmerican Sign Language, or ASL, for a time also called Ameslan, is the dominant sign language of Deaf Americans, including deaf communities in the United States, in the English-speaking parts of Canada, and in some regions of Mexico...
). There is no universal agreement on the precise definition of the various terms (see nomenclature), nor on written usage (see orthographic styling). While popular in recent English, such abbreviations have historical use in English as well as other languages. As a type of
word formationIn linguistics, word formation is the creation of a new word. Word formation is sometimes contrasted with semantic change, which is a change in a single word's meaning...
process, acronyms and initialisms are viewed as a subtype of
blendIn linguistics, a blend is a word formed from parts of two or more other words. These parts are sometimes, but not always, morphemes.-Linguistics:...
ing.
Nomenclature
The term acronym is the name for a word created from the first letters of each word in a series of words (such as
sonarSonar is a technique that uses sound propagation to navigate, communicate with or detect other vessels...
, created from sound navigation and ranging). Attestations for "Akronym" in German are known from 1921, and for "acronym" in English from 1940. While the word
abbreviationAn abbreviation is a shortened form of a word or phrase. Usually, but not always, it consists of a letter or group of letters taken from the word or phrase...
refers to any shortened form of a word or a phrase, some have used initialism or alphabetism to refer to an abbreviation formed simply from, and used simply as, a string of initials.
Although the term acronym is widely used to describe any abbreviation formed from initial letters, "Users of the term acronym make no distinction between those pronounced as words … and those pronounced as a series of characters" —Jean Praninskas, Trade Name Creation, 1968.
"It is not J.C.B.'s fault that its name, let alone its acronym, is not a household word among European scholars" —Times Literary Supp. 5 February 1970.
"… the confusion in the Pentagon about abbreviations and acronyms—words formed from the first letters of other words" —Bernard Weinraub., N.Y. Times, 11 December 1978Pyles & Algeo 1970 divide acronyms into "initialisms", which consists of initial letters pronounced with the letter names, and "word acronyms", which are pronounced as words. Initialism, an older word than acronym, seems to be too little known to the general public to serve as the customary term standing in contrast with acronym in a narrow sense. most dictionaries define acronym to mean "a word" in its original sense, while some include a secondary indication of usage, attributing to acronym the same meaning as that of initialism. According to the primary definition found in most dictionaries, examples of acronyms are
NATO (ˈ),
scubaScuba diving is a form of underwater diving in which a diver uses a scuba set to breathe underwater....
(ˈ), and
radarRadar is an object-detection system which uses radio waves to determine the range, altitude, direction, or speed of objects. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, weather formations, and terrain. The radar dish or antenna transmits pulses of radio...
(ˈ), while examples of initialisms are FBI (ˌ) and
HTMLHyperText Markup Language is the predominant markup language for web pages. HTML elements are the basic building-blocks of webpages....
(ˌ).
There is no agreement on what to call abbreviations whose pronunciation involves the combination of letter names and words, such as
JPEGIn computing, JPEG . The degree of compression can be adjusted, allowing a selectable tradeoff between storage size and image quality. JPEG typically achieves 10:1 compression with little perceptible loss in image quality....
(ˈ) and
MS-DOSMS-DOS is an operating system for x86-based personal computers. It was the most commonly used member of the DOS family of operating systems, and was the main operating system for IBM PC compatible personal computers during the 1980s to the mid 1990s, until it was gradually superseded by operating...
(ˌ).
There is also some disagreement as to what to call abbreviations that some speakers pronounce as letters and others pronounce as a word. For example, the terms
URLIn computing, a uniform resource locator or universal resource locator is a specific character string that constitutes a reference to an Internet resource....
and
IRAAn individual retirement arrangement is the blanket term for a form of retirement plan that provides tax advantages for retirement savings in the United States...
can be pronounced as individual letters: ˌ and ˌ, respectively; or as a single word: ˈ and ˈ, respectively. Such constructions, however—regardless of how they are pronounced—if formed from initials, may be identified as initialisms without controversy.
The spelled-out form of an acronym or initialism (that is, what it stands for) is called its expansion.
Comparing a few examples of each type
- Pronounced as a word, containing only initial letters
- AIDS
Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...
: acquired immune deficiency syndrome
- ASBO
Åsbo can refer to:*Åsbo Northern Hundred, a hundred in Scania*Åsbo Southern Hundred, a hundred in Scania...
: Antisocial Behaviour Order
- NATO: North Atlantic Treaty Organization
- Scuba
A scuba set is an independent breathing set that provides a scuba diver with the breathing gas necessary to breathe underwater during scuba diving. It is much used for sport diving and some sorts of work diving....
: self-contained underwater breathing apparatus
- Laser
A laser is a device that emits light through a process of optical amplification based on the stimulated emission of photons. The term "laser" originated as an acronym for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation...
: Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation
- Pronounced as a word, containing non-initial letters
- Amphetamine
Amphetamine or amfetamine is a psychostimulant drug of the phenethylamine class which produces increased wakefulness and focus in association with decreased fatigue and appetite.Brand names of medications that contain, or metabolize into, amphetamine include Adderall, Dexedrine, Dextrostat,...
: alpha-methyl-phenethylamine
- Gestapo
The Gestapo was the official secret police of Nazi Germany. Beginning on 20 April 1934, it was under the administration of the SS leader Heinrich Himmler in his position as Chief of German Police...
: Geheime Staatspolizei (secret state police)
- Interpol
Interpol, whose full name is the International Criminal Police Organization – INTERPOL, is an organization facilitating international police cooperation...
: International Criminal Police Organization
- Mavica: Magnetic video camera
- Nabisco
Nabisco is an American brand of cookies and snacks. Headquartered in East Hanover, New Jersey, the company is a subsidiary of Illinois-based Kraft Foods. Nabisco's plant in Chicago, a production facility at 7300 S...
: National Biscuit Company
- Pronounced as a word, containing a mixture of initial and non-initial letters
- Necco
Necco , pronounced "neck-o", is the acronym for the New England Confectionery Company, a manufacturer of candy. It was created in 1901 by the merger of several small confectionery companies located in the Greater Boston area; since December 2007 Necco has been owned by American Capital.The company...
: New England Confectionery Company
- Radar
Radar is an object-detection system which uses radio waves to determine the range, altitude, direction, or speed of objects. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, weather formations, and terrain. The radar dish or antenna transmits pulses of radio...
: radio detection and ranging
- Pronounced as a word or names of letters, depending on speaker or context
- FAQ
Frequently asked questions are listed questions and answers, all supposed to be commonly asked in some context, and pertaining to a particular topic. "FAQ" is usually pronounced as an initialism rather than an acronym, but an acronym form does exist. Since the acronym FAQ originated in textual...
: ([fæk] or F A Q) frequently asked questions
- IRA
An individual retirement arrangement is the blanket term for a form of retirement plan that provides tax advantages for retirement savings in the United States...
: When used for Individual Retirement AccountAn individual retirement arrangement is the blanket term for a form of retirement plan that provides tax advantages for retirement savings in the United States...
, can be pronounced as letters (I R A) or as a word [ˈaɪrə].
- SAT
The SAT Reasoning Test is a standardized test for college admissions in the United States. The SAT is owned, published, and developed by the College Board, a nonprofit organization in the United States. It was formerly developed, published, and scored by the Educational Testing Service which still...
: ([sæt] or S A T) (previously) Scholastic Achievement (or Aptitude) Test(s), now claimed not to stand for anything.
- SQL
SQL is a programming language designed for managing data in relational database management systems ....
: ([siːkwəl] or S Q L) Structured Query Language.
- Pronounced as a combination of names of letters and a word
- CD-ROM
A CD-ROM is a pre-pressed compact disc that contains data accessible to, but not writable by, a computer for data storage and music playback. The 1985 “Yellow Book” standard developed by Sony and Philips adapted the format to hold any form of binary data....
: (C-D-[rɒm]) Compact Disc read-only memory
- IUPAC: (I-U-[pæk]) International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry
- JPEG
In computing, JPEG . The degree of compression can be adjusted, allowing a selectable tradeoff between storage size and image quality. JPEG typically achieves 10:1 compression with little perceptible loss in image quality....
: (J-[pɛɡ]) Joint Photographic Experts Group
- SFMOMA
The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art is a modern art museum located in San Francisco, California. A nonprofit organization, SFMOMA holds an internationally recognized collection of modern and contemporary art and was the first museum on the West Coast devoted solely to 20th century art...
: (S-F-[moʊmə]) San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
- DSCAM
DSCAM and Dscam are both abbreviations for Down Syndrome Cell Adhesion Molecule. The case difference is significant: DSCAM refers to the human protein, and Dscam refers to its analog in Drosophila....
: (dee-scam) Down Syndrome Cell Adhesion Molecule
- Pronounced only as the names of letters
- BBC: British Broadcasting Corporation
- DNA
Deoxyribonucleic acid is a nucleic acid that contains the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms . The DNA segments that carry this genetic information are called genes, but other DNA sequences have structural purposes, or are involved in...
: deoxyribonucleic acid
- OEM
OEM means the original manufacturer of a component for a product, which may be resold by another company.OEM may also refer to:-Computing:* OEM font, or OEM-US, the original character set of the IBM PC, circa 1981...
: Original Equipment Manufacturer
- USA: United States of America
- IRA: When used for the Irish Republican Army
The Irish Republican Army was an Irish republican revolutionary military organisation. It was descended from the Irish Volunteers, an organisation established on 25 November 1913 that staged the Easter Rising in April 1916...
or organisations claiming descent from this group
- Pronounced as the names of letters but with a shortcut
- AAA:
- (triple A) American Automobile Association
AAA , formerly known as the American Automobile Association, is a federation of 51 independently operated motor clubs throughout North America. AAA is a not-for-profit member service organization with more than 51 million members. AAA provides services to its members such as travel, automotive,...
; abdominal aortic aneurysmAbdominal aortic aneurysm is a localized dilatation of the abdominal aorta exceeding the normal diameter by more than 50 percent, and is the most common form of aortic aneurysm...
; anti-aircraft artillery; Asistencia Asesoría y AdministraciónAsistencia Asesoría y Administración is a lucha libre professional wrestling promotion based in Mexico...
- (three As) Amateur Athletic Association
- IEEE
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers is a non-profit professional association headquartered in New York City that is dedicated to advancing technological innovation and excellence...
: (I triple E) Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
- NAACP
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, usually abbreviated as NAACP, is an African-American civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909. Its mission is "to ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights of all persons and to...
: (N double A C P) National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
- NCAA
The National Collegiate Athletic Association is a semi-voluntary association of 1,281 institutions, conferences, organizations and individuals that organizes the athletic programs of many colleges and universities in the United States...
: (N C double A or N C two A or ) National Collegiate Athletic Association
- Shortcut incorporated into name
- 3M
3M Company , formerly known as the Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company, is an American multinational conglomerate corporation based in Maplewood, Minnesota, United States....
: (three M) originally Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company
- E3: (E three) Electronic Entertainment Exposition
- W3C: (W three C) World Wide Web Consortium
- C4ISTAR
In military usage, a number of abbreviations in the format C followed by additional letters are used, based on expanded versions of the abbreviation C2 - command and control.C2I stands for command, control, and intelligence....
: (C four I star) Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance, Target Acquisition, and Reconnaissance
- Multi-layered acronyms
- NAC Breda
NAC Breda , simply often known as NAC, is a Dutch professional football club, based in Breda, Netherlands. NAC Breda play in the Rat Verlegh Stadium, named after their most important player, Antoon 'Rat' Verlegh. They play in the Dutch Eredivisie and are known by the fierce and fanatic support of...
: (Dutch football club) NOAD ADVENDO Combinatie ("NOAD ADVENDO Combination"), formed by the 1912 merger of two clubs, NOAD (Nooit Opgeven Altijd Doorgaan "Never give up, always persevere") and ADVENDO (Aangenaam Door Vermaak En Nuttig Door Ontspanning "Pleasant for its entertainment and useful for its relaxation") from Breda
- GAIM: GTK+
GTK+ is a cross-platform widget toolkit for creating graphical user interfaces. It is licensed under the terms of the GNU LGPL, allowing both free and proprietary software to use it. It is one of the most popular toolkits for the X Window System, along with Qt.The name GTK+ originates from GTK;...
AOLAOL Inc. is an American global Internet services and media company. AOL is headquartered at 770 Broadway in New York. Founded in 1983 as Control Video Corporation, it has franchised its services to companies in several nations around the world or set up international versions of its services...
Instant Messenger
- GIMP
GIMP is a free software raster graphics editor. It is primarily employed as an image retouching and editing tool and is freely available in versions tailored for most popular operating systems including Microsoft Windows, Apple Mac OS X, and Linux.In addition to detailed image retouching and...
: GNU Image Manipulation Program
- PAC-3: PATRIOT Advanced Capability 3 i.e., Phased Array Tracking RADAR Intercept on Target i.e., RAdio Detection And Ranging
- VHDL: VHSIC
VHSIC was a 1980s U.S. government program to develop very-high-speed integrated circuits.The United States Department of Defense launched the VHSIC project in 1980 as a joint tri-service project. The project led to advances in integrated circuit materials, lithography, packaging, testing, and...
hardware description language, where VHSIC stands for very-high-speed integrated circuit.
- Recursive acronyms, in which the abbreviation refers to itself
- GNU
GNU is a Unix-like computer operating system developed by the GNU project, ultimately aiming to be a "complete Unix-compatible software system"...
: GNU's not Unix!
- LAME
LAME is a free software codec used to encode/compress audio into the lossy MP3 file format.-History:The name LAME is a recursive acronym for "LAME Ain't an MP3 Encoder". Around mid-1998, Mike Cheng created LAME 1.0 as a set of modifications against the "8Hz-MP3" encoder source code...
: LAME Ain't an MP3MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III, more commonly referred to as MP3, is a patented digital audio encoding format using a form of lossy data compression...
Encoder
- WINE
Wine is a free software application that aims to allow computer programs written for Microsoft Windows to run on Unix-like operating systems. Wine also provides a software library, known as Winelib, against which developers can compile Windows applications to help port them to Unix-like...
: WINE Is Not an Emulator
- PHP
PHP is a general-purpose server-side scripting language originally designed for web development to produce dynamic web pages. For this purpose, PHP code is embedded into the HTML source document and interpreted by a web server with a PHP processor module, which generates the web page document...
: PHP hypertext pre-processor (formerly personal home page)
- These may go through multiple layers before the self-reference is found:
- HURD
GNU Hurd is a free software Unix-like replacement for the Unix kernel, released under the GNU General Public License. It has been under development since 1990 by the GNU Project of the Free Software Foundation...
: HIRD of Unix-replacing daemons, where "HIRD" stands for "HURD of interfaces representing depth"
- Pseudo-acronyms, which consist of a sequence of characters that, when pronounced as intended, invoke other, longer words with less typing (see also Internet slang
Internet slang is a type of slang that Internet users have popularized, and in many cases, have coined. Such terms often originate with the purpose of saving keystrokes. Many people use the same abbreviations in texting and instant messaging, and social networking websites...
)
- CQ
CQ is a code used by wireless operators, particularly those communicating in Morse code, but also by voice operators, to make a general call . Transmitting the letters CQ on a particular radio frequency is an invitation for any operators listening on that frequency to respond...
: "Seek you", a code used by radio operators (also is an editorial term meaning "Copy Qualified" in print media)
- IOU
An IOU is usually an informal document acknowledging debt. An IOU differs from a promissory note in that an IOU is not a negotiable instrument and does not specify repayment terms such as the time of repayment. IOUs usually specify the debtor, the amount owed, and sometimes the creditor...
: "I owe you" (true acronym would be IOY)
- K9: "Canine", used to designate police units utilizing dogs
- Q8
Q8 is the Kuwait Petroleum CorporationQ8 may also refer to:* Q8 * Quad 8, the Quadraphonic version of Stereo 8* Q , 4th series of Spike Milligan's TV comedy sketch show...
: "Kuwait"
- Initialisms whose last abbreviated word is often redundantly included
RAS syndrome , also known as PNS syndrome or RAP phrases , refers to the use of one or more of the words that make up an acronym or initialism in conjunction with the abbreviated form, thus in effect repeating one or more words...
anyway
- ATM
An automated teller machine or automatic teller machine, also known as a Cashpoint , cash machine or sometimes a hole in the wall in British English, is a computerised telecommunications device that provides the clients of a financial institution with access to financial transactions in a public...
machine: Automated Teller Machine machine
- DSW
-History:DSW opened its first store in July 1991 in Dublin, Ohio. In 1998, Value City Department Stores, Inc. purchased DSW. In December 2004, Retail Ventures, Inc. consolidated several brands. Until July 5, 2005, DSW operated as a wholly owned subsidiary of Retail Ventures, Inc...
Shoe Warehouse: Designer Shoe Warehouse Shoe Warehouse
- HIV virus: Human Immunodeficiency Virus virus
- PAN
Permanent Account Number is unique alphanumeric combination issued to all juristic entities identifiable under the Indian Income Tax Act 1961. It is issued by the Indian Income Tax Department under the supervision of the Central Board for Direct Taxes and is almost equivalent to a national...
number: Permanent Account Number number
- PIN
A personal identification number is a secret numeric password shared between a user and a system that can be used to authenticate the user to the system. Typically, the user is required to provide a non-confidential user identifier or token and a confidential PIN to gain access to the system...
number: Personal Identification Number number
- VIN
A Vehicle Identification Number, commonly abbreviated to VIN, is a unique serial number used by the automotive industry to identify individual motor vehicles. VINs were first used in 1954...
number: Vehicle Identification Number number
Historical and current use
Acronymy, like
retronymA retronym is a type of neologism that provides a new name for an object or concept to differentiate the original form or version of it from a more recent form or version. The original name is most often augmented with an adjective to account for later developments of the object or concept itself...
y, is a linguistic process that has existed throughout history but for which there was little to no
namingBroadly, any metalanguage is language or symbols used when language itself is being discussed or examined. In logic and linguistics, a metalanguage is a language used to make statements about statements in another language...
, conscious attention, or
systematic analysisLinguistics is the scientific study of human language. Linguistics can be broadly broken into three categories or subfields of study: language form, language meaning, and language in context....
until relatively recent times. Like retronymy, it became much more common in the 20th century than it had formerly been.
Ancient examples of acronymy (regardless of whether there was
metalanguageBroadly, any metalanguage is language or symbols used when language itself is being discussed or examined. In logic and linguistics, a metalanguage is a language used to make statements about statements in another language...
at the time to describe it) include the following:
- Initialisms were used in Rome before the Christian era. For example, the official name for the Roman Empire, and the Republic before it, was abbreviated as SPQR
SPQR is an initialism from a Latin phrase, Senatus Populusque Romanus , referring to the government of the ancient Roman Republic, and used as an official emblem of the modern day comune of Rome...
(Senatus Populusque Romanus).
- The early Christians in Rome used the image of a fish as a symbol for Jesus
Jesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...
in part because of an acronym—fish in Greek is ΙΧΘΥΣ (ichthysIchthys, from Koine Greek: , is the Greek word for "fish"....
), which was said to stand for (Iesous CHristos THeou (h) Uios Soter: Jesus Christ, God's Son, Savior). Evidence of this interpretation dates from the 2nd and 3rd centuries and is preserved in the catacombsCatacombs, human-made subterranean passageways for religious practice. Any chamber used as a burial place can be described as a catacomb, although the word is most commonly associated with the Roman empire...
of Rome. And for centuries, the Church has used the inscription INRI over the crucifix, which stands for the Latin Iesus Nazarenus Rex Iudaeorum ("Jesus the Nazarene, King of the Jews").
- The Hebrew language has a long history of formation of acronyms pronounced as words, stretching back many centuries. The Hebrew Bible ("Old Testament") is known as "Tanakh", an acronym composed from the Hebrew initial letters of its three major sections: Torah (five books of Moses), Nevi'im (prophets), and K'tuvim (writings). Many rabbinical figures from the Middle Ages onward are referred to in rabbinical literature by their pronounced acronyms, such as Rambam (aka Maimonides, from the initial letters of his full Hebrew name (Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon) and Rashi (Rabbi Shlomo Yitzkhaki).
During the mid to late 19th century, an initialism-disseminating trend spread through the American and European business communities: abbreviating
corporationA corporation is created under the laws of a state as a separate legal entity that has privileges and liabilities that are distinct from those of its members. There are many different forms of corporations, most of which are used to conduct business. Early corporations were established by charter...
names in places where space was limited for writing — such as on the sides of
railroad carA railroad car or railway vehicle , also known as a bogie in Indian English, is a vehicle on a rail transport system that is used for the carrying of cargo or passengers. Cars can be coupled together into a train and hauled by one or more locomotives...
s (e.g., Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad → RF&P); on the sides of barrels and crates; and on
ticker tapeTicker tape was the earliest digital electronic communications medium, transmitting stock price information over telegraph lines, in use between around 1870 through 1970...
and in the small-print newspaper stock listings that got their data from it (e.g., American Telephone and Telegraph Company → AT&T). Some well-known commercial examples dating from the 1890s through 1920s include
NabiscoNabisco is an American brand of cookies and snacks. Headquartered in East Hanover, New Jersey, the company is a subsidiary of Illinois-based Kraft Foods. Nabisco's plant in Chicago, a production facility at 7300 S...
(National Biscuit Company),
EssoEsso is an international trade name for ExxonMobil and its related companies. Pronounced , it is derived from the initials of the pre-1911 Standard Oil, and as such became the focus of much litigation and regulatory restriction in the United States. In 1972, it was largely replaced in the U.S. by...
(from S.O., from
Standard OilStandard Oil was a predominant American integrated oil producing, transporting, refining, and marketing company. Established in 1870 as a corporation in Ohio, it was the largest oil refiner in the world and operated as a major company trust and was one of the world's first and largest multinational...
), and
SunocoSunoco Inc. is an American petroleum and petrochemical manufacturer headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, formerly known as Sun Company Inc. and Sun Oil Co. ....
(Sun Oil Company).
The widespread, frequent use of acronyms and initialisms across the whole range of
registersIn linguistics, a register is a variety of a language used for a particular purpose or in a particular social setting. For example, when speaking in a formal setting an English speaker may be more likely to adhere more closely to prescribed grammar, pronounce words ending in -ing with a velar nasal...
is a relatively new linguistic phenomenon in most languages, becoming increasingly evident since the mid-20th century. As literacy rates rose, and as advances in science and technology brought with them a constant stream of new (and sometimes more complex) terms and concepts, the practice of abbreviating terms became increasingly convenient. The
Oxford English DictionaryThe Oxford English Dictionary , published by the Oxford University Press, is the self-styled premier dictionary of the English language. Two fully bound print editions of the OED have been published under its current name, in 1928 and 1989. The first edition was published in twelve volumes , and...
(OED) records the first printed use of the word initialism as occurring in 1899, but it did not come into general use until 1965, well after acronym had become common.
By 1943, the term acronym had been used in English to recognize abbreviations (and contractions of phrases) that were pronounced as words. (It was formed from the
GreekGreek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
words ἄκρος, akros, "topmost, extreme" and ὄνομα, onoma, "name.") For example, the army offense of being absent without official leave was abbreviated to "
A.W.O.L.In military terminology, desertion is the abandonment of a "duty" or post without permission and is done with the intention of not returning...
" in reports, but when pronounced as a word ('awol'), it became an acronym. While initial letters are commonly used to form an acronym, the original definition was a word made from the initial letters or syllables of other words, for example
UNIVACThe UNIVAC I was the first commercial computer produced in the United States. It was designed principally by J. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly, the inventors of the ENIAC...
from UNIVersal Automatic Computer.
In English, acronyms pronounced as words may be a 20th-century phenomenon. Linguist David Wilton in Word Myths: Debunking Linguistic Urban Legends claims that "forming words from acronyms is a distinctly twentieth- (and now twenty-first-) century phenomenon. There is only one known pre-twentieth-century [English] word with an acronymic origin and it was in vogue for only a short time in 1886. The word is colinderies or colinda, an acronym for the Colonial and Indian Exposition held in London in that year."
Early examples in English
- The use of Latin and Neo-Latin terms in vernacular
A vernacular is the native language or native dialect of a specific population, as opposed to a language of wider communication that is not native to the population, such as a national language or lingua franca.- Etymology :The term is not a recent one...
s has been pan-European and predates modern English. Some examples of initialisms in this class are:
- A.M.
The 12-hour clock is a time conversion convention in which the 24 hours of the day are divided into two periods called ante meridiem and post meridiem...
(from Latin ante meridiem, "before noon") and P.M.The 12-hour clock is a time conversion convention in which the 24 hours of the day are divided into two periods called ante meridiem and post meridiem...
(from Latin post meridiem, "after noon")
- A.D. (from Latin Anno Domini
and Before Christ are designations used to label or number years used with the Julian and Gregorian calendars....
, "in the year of our Lord") (whose complement in English, B.C. [Before Christ], is English-sourced)
- O.K.
"Okay" is a colloquial English word denoting approval, acceptance, agreement, assent, or acknowledgment. "Okay" has frequently turned up as a loanword in many other languages...
, a term of disputed origin, dating back at least to the early 19th century, now used around the world
- The etymology
Etymology is the study of the history of words, their origins, and how their form and meaning have changed over time.For languages with a long written history, etymologists make use of texts in these languages and texts about the languages to gather knowledge about how words were used during...
of the word alphabet itself comes to Middle EnglishMiddle English is the stage in the history of the English language during the High and Late Middle Ages, or roughly during the four centuries between the late 11th and the late 15th century....
from the Late LatinLate Latin is the scholarly name for the written Latin of Late Antiquity. The English dictionary definition of Late Latin dates this period from the 3rd to the 6th centuries AD extending in Spain to the 7th. This somewhat ambiguously defined period fits between Classical Latin and Medieval Latin...
Alphabetum, which in turn derives from the Ancient GreekAncient Greek is the stage of the Greek language in the periods spanning the times c. 9th–6th centuries BC, , c. 5th–4th centuries BC , and the c. 3rd century BC – 6th century AD of ancient Greece and the ancient world; being predated in the 2nd millennium BC by Mycenaean Greek...
Alphabetos, from alphaAlpha is the first letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals it has a value of 1. It was derived from the Phoenician letter Aleph...
and betaBeta is the second letter of the Greek alphabet. In Ancient Greek, beta represented the voiced bilabial plosive . In Modern Greek, it represents the voiced labiodental fricative ....
, the first two letters of the Greek alphabetThe Greek alphabet is the script that has been used to write the Greek language since at least 730 BC . The alphabet in its classical and modern form consists of 24 letters ordered in sequence from alpha to omega...
. In colloquial terms, learning the alphabet is called learning one's ABCs.
Current use
Acronyms and initialisms are used most often to abbreviate names of organizations and long or frequently referenced terms. The
armed forcesA military is an organization authorized by its greater society to use lethal force, usually including use of weapons, in defending its country by combating actual or perceived threats. The military may have additional functions of use to its greater society, such as advancing a political agenda e.g...
and government agencies frequently employ initialisms (and occasionally, acronyms); some well-known examples from the United States are among the "
alphabet agenciesIn total, at least 100 offices were created during Roosevelt's terms of office as part of the New Deal, and "even the Comptroller-General of the United States, who audits the government's accounts, declared he had never heard of some of them." While previously all monetary appropriations had been...
" created by
Franklin D. RooseveltFranklin Delano Roosevelt , also known by his initials, FDR, was the 32nd President of the United States and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...
under the
New DealThe New Deal was a series of economic programs implemented in the United States between 1933 and 1936. They were passed by the U.S. Congress during the first term of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The programs were Roosevelt's responses to the Great Depression, and focused on what historians call...
. Business and industry also are prolific coiners of acronyms and initialisms. The rapid advance of science and technology in recent centuries seems to be an underlying force driving the usage, as new inventions and concepts with multiword names create a demand for shorter, more manageable names. One representative example, from the U.S. Navy, is COMCRUDESPAC, which stands for commander, cruisers destroyers Pacific; it's also seen as "ComCruDesPac". "YABA-compatible" (where YABA stands for "yet another bloody acronym") is used to mean that a term's acronym can be pronounced but is not an offensive word (e.g., "When choosing a new name, be sure it is "YABA-compatible").
The use of initialisms has been further popularized with the emergence of Short Message Systems (SMS). To fit messages into the 160-Character limit of SMS, initialisms such as "GF" (girl friend), "LOL" (laughing out loud), and "DL" (download or down low) have been popularized into the mainstream. Although
prescriptivistIn linguistics, prescription denotes normative practices on such aspects of language use as spelling, grammar, pronunciation, and syntax. It includes judgments on what usages are socially proper and politically correct...
disdain for such neologism is fashionable, and can be useful when the goal is protecting message receivers from crypticness, it is scientifically groundless when couched as preserving the "purity" or "legitimacy" of language; this neologism is merely the latest instance of a perennial linguistic principle—the same one that in the 19th century prompted the aforementioned abbreviation of corporation names in places where space for writing was limited (e.g., ticker tape, newspaper
column inchA column inch is a measurement of the amount of content in published works that use multiple columns per page. A column inch is a unit of space one column wide by one inch high.-A newspaper page:...
es).
Aids to learning the expansion without leaving a document
The expansion is typically given at the first occurrence of the acronym within a given text, for the benefit of those readers who do not know what it stands for. The capitalization of the original term is independent of it being acronymized, being lowercase for a term such as frequently asked questions (FAQ) but uppercase for a proper name such as the United Nations (UN).
In addition to expansion at first use, some publications also have a key listing all acronyms or initialisms used therein and what their expansions are. This is a convenience to readers for two reasons. The first is that if they are not reading the entire publication sequentially (which is a common mode of reading), then they may encounter an acronym without having seen its expansion. Having a key at the start or end of the publication obviates skimming over the text searching for an earlier use to find the expansion. (This is especially important in the print medium, where no search utility is available.) The second reason for the key feature is its pedagogical value in educational works such as textbooks. It gives students a way to review the meanings of the acronyms introduced in a chapter after they have done the line-by-line reading, and also a way to quiz themselves on the meanings (by covering up the expansion column and recalling the expansions from memory, then checking their answers by uncovering.)
Expansion at first use and the abbreviation-key feature are aids to the reader that originated in the print era, and they are equally useful in print and online. In addition, the online medium offers yet more aids, such as
tooltipThe tooltip or infotip is a common graphical user interface element. It is used in conjunction with a cursor, usually a mouse pointer. The user hovers the cursor over an item, without clicking it, and a tooltip may appear—a small "hover box" with information about the item being hovered...
s and
hyperlinkIn computing, a hyperlink is a reference to data that the reader can directly follow, or that is followed automatically. A hyperlink points to a whole document or to a specific element within a document. Hypertext is text with hyperlinks...
s.
Jargon
Acronyms and initialisms often occur in
jargonJargon is terminology which is especially defined in relationship to a specific activity, profession, group, or event. The philosophe Condillac observed in 1782 that "Every science requires a special language because every science has its own ideas." As a rationalist member of the Enlightenment he...
. An initialism may have different meanings in different areas of industry, writing, and scholarship. The general reason for this is convenience and succinctness for specialists, although it has led some to obfuscate the meaning either intentionally, to deter those without such domain-specific knowledge, or unintentionally, by creating an initialism that already existed.
The medical literature has been struggling to control the proliferation of acronyms as their use has evolved from aiding communication to hindering it. This has become such a problem that it is even evaluated at the level of medical academies such as the American Academy of Dermatology.
As Mnemonics
Acronyms and initialisms are often taught as
mnemonicA mnemonic , or mnemonic device, is any learning technique that aids memory. To improve long term memory, mnemonic systems are used to make memorization easier. Commonly encountered mnemonics are often verbal, such as a very short poem or a special word used to help a person remember something,...
devices, for example in physics the colors of the visible spectrum are
ROY G. BIVROYGBIV is an acronym for the visible part of the electromagnetic light spectrum:* Red* Orange* Yellow* Green* Blue* Indigo* VioletA rainbow spans a continuous spectrum of colors; the distinct bands are an artifact of human color vision...
(red-orange-yellow-green-blue-indigo-violet). They are also used as mental checklists, for example in aviation:
GUMPSGUMPS is an acronym widely used by fixed wing aircraft pilots as a mental checklist to ensure nothing critical has been forgotten before landing...
, which is Gas-Undercarriage-Mixture-Propeller-Seatbelts. Other examples of mnemonic acronyms and initialisms include
CAN SLIMCAN SLIM refers to the seven-pronged mnemonic publicized by the American newspaper Investor's Business Daily, which claims to be a checklist of the characteristics performing stocks tend to share before their biggest gains...
, and
PAVPANICPAVPANIC is a mnemonic device used in remembering the parts of speech in the English language.The eight letters in PAVPANIC stand for*P Pronouns*A Adjectives*V Verbs*P Prepositions*A Adverbs*N Nouns...
.
Acronyms as legendary etymology
It is not uncommon for acronyms to be cited in a kind of
false etymologyFolk etymology is change in a word or phrase over time resulting from the replacement of an unfamiliar form by a more familiar one. Unanalyzable borrowings from foreign languages, like asparagus, or old compounds such as samblind which have lost their iconic motivation are...
, called a folk etymology, for a word. Such etymologies persist in popular culture but have no factual basis in
historical linguisticsHistorical linguistics is the study of language change. It has five main concerns:* to describe and account for observed changes in particular languages...
, and are examples of language-related
urban legendAn urban legend, urban myth, urban tale, or contemporary legend, is a form of modern folklore consisting of stories that may or may not have been believed by their tellers to be true...
s. For example,
copA police officer is a warranted employee of a police force...
is commonly cited as being derived, it is presumed, from "constable on patrol," posh from "port out, starboard home", and
golfGolf is a precision club and ball sport, in which competing players use many types of clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a golf course using the fewest number of strokes....
from "gentlemen only, ladies forbidden". Taboo words in particular commonly have such false etymologies:
shitShit is usually considered vulgar and profane in Modern English. As a noun it refers to fecal matter and as a verb it means to defecate or defecate in; in the plural it means diarrhea...
from "ship/store high in transit" or "special high-intensity training" and
fuck"Fuck" is an English word that is generally considered obscene which, in its most literal meaning, refers to the act of sexual intercourse. By extension it may be used to negatively characterize anything that can be dismissed, disdained, defiled, or destroyed."Fuck" can be used as a verb, adverb,...
from "for unlawful carnal knowledge", or "fornication under consent of the king".
Showing the ellipsis of letters
In English, abbreviations have traditionally been written with a
full stop/period/pointA full stop is the punctuation mark commonly placed at the end of sentences. In American English, the term used for this punctuation is period. In the 21st century, it is often also called a dot by young people...
in place of the deleted part to show the ellipsis of letters, although the
colonThe colon is a punctuation mark consisting of two equally sized dots centered on the same vertical line.-Usage:A colon informs the reader that what follows the mark proves, explains, or lists elements of what preceded the mark....
and
apostropheThe apostrophe is a punctuation mark, and sometimes a diacritic mark, in languages that use the Latin alphabet or certain other alphabets...
have also had this role. In the case of most acronyms and initialisms, each letter is an abbreviation of a separate word and, in theory, should get its own termination mark. Such punctuation is diminishing with the belief that the presence of all-capital letters is sufficient to indicate that the word is an abbreviation.
Ellipsis-is-understood style
Some influential
style guideA style guide or style manual is a set of standards for the writing and design of documents, either for general use or for a specific publication, organization or field...
s, such as that of the
BBCThe British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
, no longer require punctuation to show ellipsis; some even proscribe it. Larry Trask, American author of The
PenguinPenguin Books is a publisher founded in 1935 by Sir Allen Lane and V.K. Krishna Menon. Penguin revolutionised publishing in the 1930s through its high quality, inexpensive paperbacks, sold through Woolworths and other high street stores for sixpence. Penguin's success demonstrated that large...
Guide to Punctuation, states categorically that, in
British EnglishBritish English, or English , is the broad term used to distinguish the forms of the English language used in the United Kingdom from forms used elsewhere...
, "this tiresome and unnecessary practice is now obsolete", though some other sources are not so absolute in their pronouncements.
Pronunciation-dependent style
Nevertheless, some influential
style guideA style guide or style manual is a set of standards for the writing and design of documents, either for general use or for a specific publication, organization or field...
s, many of them
AmericanAmerican English is a set of dialects of the English language used mostly in the United States. Approximately two-thirds of the world's native speakers of English live in the United States....
, still require periods in certain instances. For example,
The New York TimesThe New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
’ guide recommends following each segment with a period when the letters are pronounced individually, as in
K.G.B.The KGB was the commonly used acronym for the . It was the national security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 until 1991, and was the premier internal security, intelligence, and secret police organization during that time.The State Security Agency of the Republic of Belarus currently uses the...
, but not when pronounced as a word, as in
NATO. The logic of this style is that the pronunciation is reflected graphically by the punctuation scheme.
Other conventions
When a multiple-letter abbreviation is formed from a single word, periods are in general not used, although they may be common in informal usage. TV, for example, may stand for a single word (television or transvestite, for instance), and is in general spelled without punctuation (except in the plural). Although PS stands for the single word postscript (or the Latin postscriptum), it is often spelled with periods (P.S.).
The
slashThe slash is a sign used as a punctuation mark and for various other purposes. It is now often called a forward slash , and many other alternative names.-History:...
('/', a.k.a. virgule) is sometimes used to show the ellipsis of letters, for instance in the initialisms N/A (not applicable, not available) and w/o (without).
Inconveniently long words used frequently in related contexts can be represented according to their letter count. For example, i18n abbreviates
internationalizationIn economics, internationalization has been viewed as a process of increasing involvement of enterprises in international markets, although there is no agreed definition of internationalization or international entrepreneurship...
, a computer-science term for adapting software for worldwide use. The 18 represents the 18 letters that come between the first and the last in internationalization. Localization can be abbreviated l10n, multilingualization m17n, and
accessibilityAccessibility is a general term used to describe the degree to which a product, device, service, or environment is available to as many people as possible. Accessibility can be viewed as the "ability to access" and benefit from some system or entity...
a11y. In addition to the use of a specific number replacing that amount of letters, the more general "x" can be used to replace an unspecified number of letters (e.g., Crxn for crystallization).
Representing plurals and possessives
The traditional style of pluralizing single letters with the addition of ’s (for example, B’s come after A’s) was extended to some of the earliest initialisms, which tended to be written with periods to indicate the omission of letters; some writers still pluralize initialisms in this way. Some style guides continue to require such apostrophes perhaps partly to make it clear that the lower case s is only for pluralization and would not appear in the singular form of the word, for some acronyms and abbreviations do include lowercase letters.
However, it has become common among many writers to
inflectIn grammar, inflection or inflexion is the modification of a word to express different grammatical categories such as tense, grammatical mood, grammatical voice, aspect, person, number, gender and case...
initialisms as ordinary words, using simple s, without an apostrophe, for the plural. In this case, compact discs becomes CDs. The logic here is that the apostrophe should be restricted to possessives: for example, the CD's label (the label of the compact disc).
Multiple options arise when initialisms are spelled with periods and are pluralized: for example, whether compact discs may become C.D.'s, C.D.s, or CDs. Possessive plurals that also include apostrophes for mere pluralization and periods appear especially complex: for example, the C.D.’s’ labels (the labels of the compact discs). This is yet another reason to use apostrophes only for possessives and not for plurals. In some instances, however, an apostrophe may increase clarity: for example, if the final letter of an abbreviation is S, as in SOS's, or when pluralizing an abbreviation that has periods. (In The New York Times, the plural possessive of G.I., which the newspaper prints with periods in reference to
United States ArmyThe United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
soldiers, is G.I.'s, with no apostrophe after the s.)
A particularly rich source of options arises when the plural of an initialism would normally be indicated in a word other than the final word if spelled out in full. A classic example is Member of Parliament, which in plural is Members of Parliament. It is possible then to abbreviate this as M's P. (or similar), as famously used by a former Australian Prime Minister. This usage is less common than forms with s at the end, such as MPs, and may appear dated or pedantic. In common usage, therefore, weapons of mass destruction becomes WMDs, prisoners of war becomes POWs, and runs batted in becomes RBIs.
The argument that initialisms should have no different plural form (for example, "If D can stand for disc, it can also stand for discs") is in general disregarded because of the practicality in distinguishing singulars and plurals. This is not the case, however, when the abbreviation is understood to describe a plural noun already: For example, U.S. is short for United States, but not United State. In this case, the options for making a possessive form of an abbreviation that is already in its plural form without a final s may seem awkward: for example, U.S.’, U.S.'s, etc. In such instances, possessive abbreviations are often foregone in favor of simple
attributiveIn grammar, an adjective is a 'describing' word; the main syntactic role of which is to qualify a noun or noun phrase, giving more information about the object signified....
usage (for example, the U.S. economy) or expanding the abbreviation to its full form and then making the possessive (for example, the United States’ economy). On the other hand, in speech, the pronunciation United States's sometimes is used.
Abbreviations that come from single, rather than multiple, words such as TV (television) are pluralized without apostrophes: the apostrophe should be reserved for the possessive (TVs).
In some languages, the convention of doubling the letters in the initialism is used to indicate plural words: for example, the Spanish EE. UU., for Estados Unidos (United States). This old convention is still followed for a limited number of English abbreviations, such as SS. for Saints, pp. for pages (although this is actually derived from the Latin abbreviation for paginae) or MSS for manuscripts.
Acronyms that are now always rendered in the lower case are pluralized as regular English nouns: for example, lasers.
When an initialism is part of a function in computing that is conventionally written in lower case, it is common to use an
apostropheThe apostrophe is a punctuation mark, and sometimes a diacritic mark, in languages that use the Latin alphabet or certain other alphabets...
to pluralize or otherwise conjugate the token. This practice results in such sentences like "Be sure to remove extraneous
.dllDynamic-link library , or DLL, is Microsoft's implementation of the shared library concept in the Microsoft Windows and OS/2 operating systems...
's" (more than one .dll). However, despite the pervasiveness of this practice, it is generally held to be incorrect; the preferred method being to simply append an s, without the apostrophe.
In computer
lingoSpeech community is a group of people who share a set of norms and expectations regarding the use of language. Speech communities can be members of a profession with a specialized jargon, distinct social groups like high school students or hip hop fans , or even tight-knit groups like families and...
, it is common to use the name of a computer program, format, or function, acronym or not, as a verb. In such verbification of abbreviations, there is confusion about how to conjugate: for example, if the verb IM means to send (someone) an instant message, the past tense may be rendered IM’ed, IMed, IM’d, or IMd and the third-person singular present indicative may be IM's or IMs.
All-caps style
The most common
capitalizationCapitalization is writing a word with its first letter as a majuscule and the remaining letters in minuscules . This of course only applies to those writing systems which have a case distinction...
scheme seen with acronyms and initialisms is all-uppercase (
all-capsIn typography, all caps refers to text or a font in which all letters are capital letters. All caps is usually used for emphasis. It is commonly seen in the titles on book covers, in advertisements and in newspaper headlines...
), except for those few that have linguistically taken on an identity as regular words, with the acronymous etymology of the words fading into the background of common knowledge, such as has occurred with the words
scubaA scuba set is an independent breathing set that provides a scuba diver with the breathing gas necessary to breathe underwater during scuba diving. It is much used for sport diving and some sorts of work diving....
,
laserA laser is a device that emits light through a process of optical amplification based on the stimulated emission of photons. The term "laser" originated as an acronym for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation...
, and
radarRadar is an object-detection system which uses radio waves to determine the range, altitude, direction, or speed of objects. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, weather formations, and terrain. The radar dish or antenna transmits pulses of radio...
— these are known as anacronyms (a portmanteau with
anachronismAn anachronism—from the Greek ανά and χρόνος — is an inconsistency in some chronological arrangement, especially a chronological misplacing of persons, events, objects, or customs in regard to each other...
).
Small-caps variant
Small capsIn typography, small capitals are uppercase characters set at the same height and weight as surrounding lowercase letters or text figures...
are sometimes used to make the run of capital letters seem less jarring to the reader. For example, the style of some American publications, including the Atlantic Monthly and
USA TodayUSA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...
, is to use small caps for acronyms and initialisms longer than three letters; thus "U.S." and "
FDRFranklin Delano Roosevelt , also known by his initials, FDR, was the 32nd President of the United States and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...
" in normal caps, but "" in small caps. The initialisms "
{{Selfref|For acronyms used on Wikipedia, see Wikipedia:Acronyms.}}
Acronyms and initialisms are abbreviationAn abbreviation is a shortened form of a word or phrase. Usually, but not always, it consists of a letter or group of letters taken from the word or phrase...
s formed from the initial components in a phrase or a word. These components may be individual letters (as in CEO) or parts of words (as in
BeneluxThe Benelux is an economic union in Western Europe comprising three neighbouring countries, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg. These countries are located in northwestern Europe between France and Germany...
and
AmeslanAmerican Sign Language, or ASL, for a time also called Ameslan, is the dominant sign language of Deaf Americans, including deaf communities in the United States, in the English-speaking parts of Canada, and in some regions of Mexico...
). There is no universal agreement on the precise definition of the various terms (see nomenclature), nor on written usage (see orthographic styling). While popular in recent English, such abbreviations have historical use in English as well as other languages. As a type of
word formationIn linguistics, word formation is the creation of a new word. Word formation is sometimes contrasted with semantic change, which is a change in a single word's meaning...
process, acronyms and initialisms are viewed as a subtype of
blendIn linguistics, a blend is a word formed from parts of two or more other words. These parts are sometimes, but not always, morphemes.-Linguistics:...
ing.
Nomenclature
The term acronym is the name for a word created from the first letters of each word in a series of words (such as
sonarSonar is a technique that uses sound propagation to navigate, communicate with or detect other vessels...
, created from sound navigation and ranging). Attestations for "Akronym" in German are known from 1921, and for "acronym" in English from 1940. While the word
abbreviationAn abbreviation is a shortened form of a word or phrase. Usually, but not always, it consists of a letter or group of letters taken from the word or phrase...
refers to any shortened form of a word or a phrase, some have used initialism or alphabetism to refer to an abbreviation formed simply from, and used simply as, a string of initials.
Although the term acronym is widely used to describe any abbreviation formed from initial letters, "Users of the term acronym make no distinction between those pronounced as words … and those pronounced as a series of characters" —Jean Praninskas, Trade Name Creation, 1968.
"It is not J.C.B.'s fault that its name, let alone its acronym, is not a household word among European scholars" —Times Literary Supp. 5 February 1970.
"… the confusion in the Pentagon about abbreviations and acronyms—words formed from the first letters of other words" —Bernard Weinraub., N.Y. Times, 11 December 1978Pyles & Algeo 1970 divide acronyms into "initialisms", which consists of initial letters pronounced with the letter names, and "word acronyms", which are pronounced as words. Initialism, an older word than acronym, seems to be too little known to the general public to serve as the customary term standing in contrast with acronym in a narrow sense. most dictionaries define acronym to mean "a word" in its original sense, while some include a secondary indication of usage, attributing to acronym the same meaning as that of initialism. According to the primary definition found in most dictionaries, examples of acronyms are
NATO (ˈ),
scubaScuba diving is a form of underwater diving in which a diver uses a scuba set to breathe underwater....
(ˈ), and
radarRadar is an object-detection system which uses radio waves to determine the range, altitude, direction, or speed of objects. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, weather formations, and terrain. The radar dish or antenna transmits pulses of radio...
(ˈ), while examples of initialisms are FBI (ˌ) and
HTMLHyperText Markup Language is the predominant markup language for web pages. HTML elements are the basic building-blocks of webpages....
(ˌ).
There is no agreement on what to call abbreviations whose pronunciation involves the combination of letter names and words, such as
JPEGIn computing, JPEG . The degree of compression can be adjusted, allowing a selectable tradeoff between storage size and image quality. JPEG typically achieves 10:1 compression with little perceptible loss in image quality....
(ˈ) and
MS-DOSMS-DOS is an operating system for x86-based personal computers. It was the most commonly used member of the DOS family of operating systems, and was the main operating system for IBM PC compatible personal computers during the 1980s to the mid 1990s, until it was gradually superseded by operating...
(ˌ).
There is also some disagreement as to what to call abbreviations that some speakers pronounce as letters and others pronounce as a word. For example, the terms
URLIn computing, a uniform resource locator or universal resource locator is a specific character string that constitutes a reference to an Internet resource....
and
IRAAn individual retirement arrangement is the blanket term for a form of retirement plan that provides tax advantages for retirement savings in the United States...
can be pronounced as individual letters: ˌ and ˌ, respectively; or as a single word: ˈ and ˈ, respectively. Such constructions, however—regardless of how they are pronounced—if formed from initials, may be identified as initialisms without controversy.
The spelled-out form of an acronym or initialism (that is, what it stands for) is called its expansion.
Comparing a few examples of each type
- Pronounced as a word, containing only initial letters
- AIDS
Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...
: acquired immune deficiency syndrome
- ASBO
Åsbo can refer to:*Åsbo Northern Hundred, a hundred in Scania*Åsbo Southern Hundred, a hundred in Scania...
: Antisocial Behaviour Order
- NATO: North Atlantic Treaty Organization
- Scuba
A scuba set is an independent breathing set that provides a scuba diver with the breathing gas necessary to breathe underwater during scuba diving. It is much used for sport diving and some sorts of work diving....
: self-contained underwater breathing apparatus
- Laser
A laser is a device that emits light through a process of optical amplification based on the stimulated emission of photons. The term "laser" originated as an acronym for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation...
: Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation
- Pronounced as a word, containing non-initial letters
- Amphetamine
Amphetamine or amfetamine is a psychostimulant drug of the phenethylamine class which produces increased wakefulness and focus in association with decreased fatigue and appetite.Brand names of medications that contain, or metabolize into, amphetamine include Adderall, Dexedrine, Dextrostat,...
: alpha-methyl-phenethylamine
- Gestapo
The Gestapo was the official secret police of Nazi Germany. Beginning on 20 April 1934, it was under the administration of the SS leader Heinrich Himmler in his position as Chief of German Police...
: Geheime Staatspolizei (secret state police)
- Interpol
Interpol, whose full name is the International Criminal Police Organization – INTERPOL, is an organization facilitating international police cooperation...
: International Criminal Police Organization
- Mavica: Magnetic video camera
- Nabisco
Nabisco is an American brand of cookies and snacks. Headquartered in East Hanover, New Jersey, the company is a subsidiary of Illinois-based Kraft Foods. Nabisco's plant in Chicago, a production facility at 7300 S...
: National Biscuit Company
- Pronounced as a word, containing a mixture of initial and non-initial letters
- Necco
Necco , pronounced "neck-o", is the acronym for the New England Confectionery Company, a manufacturer of candy. It was created in 1901 by the merger of several small confectionery companies located in the Greater Boston area; since December 2007 Necco has been owned by American Capital.The company...
: New England Confectionery Company
- Radar
Radar is an object-detection system which uses radio waves to determine the range, altitude, direction, or speed of objects. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, weather formations, and terrain. The radar dish or antenna transmits pulses of radio...
: radio detection and ranging
- Pronounced as a word or names of letters, depending on speaker or context
- FAQ
Frequently asked questions are listed questions and answers, all supposed to be commonly asked in some context, and pertaining to a particular topic. "FAQ" is usually pronounced as an initialism rather than an acronym, but an acronym form does exist. Since the acronym FAQ originated in textual...
: ([fæk] or F A Q) frequently asked questions
- IRA
An individual retirement arrangement is the blanket term for a form of retirement plan that provides tax advantages for retirement savings in the United States...
: When used for Individual Retirement AccountAn individual retirement arrangement is the blanket term for a form of retirement plan that provides tax advantages for retirement savings in the United States...
, can be pronounced as letters (I R A) or as a word [ˈaɪrə].
- SAT
The SAT Reasoning Test is a standardized test for college admissions in the United States. The SAT is owned, published, and developed by the College Board, a nonprofit organization in the United States. It was formerly developed, published, and scored by the Educational Testing Service which still...
: ([sæt] or S A T) (previously) Scholastic Achievement (or Aptitude) Test(s), now claimed not to stand for anything.
- SQL
SQL is a programming language designed for managing data in relational database management systems ....
: ([siːkwəl] or S Q L) Structured Query Language.
- Pronounced as a combination of names of letters and a word
- CD-ROM
A CD-ROM is a pre-pressed compact disc that contains data accessible to, but not writable by, a computer for data storage and music playback. The 1985 “Yellow Book” standard developed by Sony and Philips adapted the format to hold any form of binary data....
: (C-D-[rɒm]) Compact Disc read-only memory
- IUPAC: (I-U-[pæk]) International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry
- JPEG
In computing, JPEG . The degree of compression can be adjusted, allowing a selectable tradeoff between storage size and image quality. JPEG typically achieves 10:1 compression with little perceptible loss in image quality....
: (J-[pɛɡ]) Joint Photographic Experts Group
- SFMOMA
The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art is a modern art museum located in San Francisco, California. A nonprofit organization, SFMOMA holds an internationally recognized collection of modern and contemporary art and was the first museum on the West Coast devoted solely to 20th century art...
: (S-F-[moʊmə]) San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
- DSCAM
DSCAM and Dscam are both abbreviations for Down Syndrome Cell Adhesion Molecule. The case difference is significant: DSCAM refers to the human protein, and Dscam refers to its analog in Drosophila....
: (dee-scam) Down Syndrome Cell Adhesion Molecule
- Pronounced only as the names of letters
- BBC: British Broadcasting Corporation
- DNA
Deoxyribonucleic acid is a nucleic acid that contains the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms . The DNA segments that carry this genetic information are called genes, but other DNA sequences have structural purposes, or are involved in...
: deoxyribonucleic acid
- OEM
OEM means the original manufacturer of a component for a product, which may be resold by another company.OEM may also refer to:-Computing:* OEM font, or OEM-US, the original character set of the IBM PC, circa 1981...
: Original Equipment Manufacturer
- USA: United States of America
- IRA: When used for the Irish Republican Army
The Irish Republican Army was an Irish republican revolutionary military organisation. It was descended from the Irish Volunteers, an organisation established on 25 November 1913 that staged the Easter Rising in April 1916...
or organisations claiming descent from this group
- Pronounced as the names of letters but with a shortcut
- AAA:
- (triple A) American Automobile Association
AAA , formerly known as the American Automobile Association, is a federation of 51 independently operated motor clubs throughout North America. AAA is a not-for-profit member service organization with more than 51 million members. AAA provides services to its members such as travel, automotive,...
; abdominal aortic aneurysmAbdominal aortic aneurysm is a localized dilatation of the abdominal aorta exceeding the normal diameter by more than 50 percent, and is the most common form of aortic aneurysm...
; anti-aircraft artillery; Asistencia Asesoría y AdministraciónAsistencia Asesoría y Administración is a lucha libre professional wrestling promotion based in Mexico...
- (three As) Amateur Athletic Association
- IEEE
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers is a non-profit professional association headquartered in New York City that is dedicated to advancing technological innovation and excellence...
: (I triple E) Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
- NAACP
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, usually abbreviated as NAACP, is an African-American civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909. Its mission is "to ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights of all persons and to...
: (N double A C P) National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
- NCAA
The National Collegiate Athletic Association is a semi-voluntary association of 1,281 institutions, conferences, organizations and individuals that organizes the athletic programs of many colleges and universities in the United States...
: (N C double A or N C two A or {{lang|en|N C A A}}) National Collegiate Athletic Association
- Shortcut incorporated into name
- 3M
3M Company , formerly known as the Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company, is an American multinational conglomerate corporation based in Maplewood, Minnesota, United States....
: (three M) originally Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company
- E3: (E three) Electronic Entertainment Exposition
- W3C: (W three C) World Wide Web Consortium
- C4ISTAR
In military usage, a number of abbreviations in the format C followed by additional letters are used, based on expanded versions of the abbreviation C2 - command and control.C2I stands for command, control, and intelligence....
: (C four I star) Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance, Target Acquisition, and Reconnaissance
- Multi-layered acronyms
- NAC Breda
NAC Breda , simply often known as NAC, is a Dutch professional football club, based in Breda, Netherlands. NAC Breda play in the Rat Verlegh Stadium, named after their most important player, Antoon 'Rat' Verlegh. They play in the Dutch Eredivisie and are known by the fierce and fanatic support of...
: (Dutch football club) NOAD ADVENDO Combinatie ("NOAD ADVENDO Combination"), formed by the 1912 merger of two clubs, NOAD (Nooit Opgeven Altijd Doorgaan "Never give up, always persevere") and ADVENDO (Aangenaam Door Vermaak En Nuttig Door Ontspanning "Pleasant for its entertainment and useful for its relaxation") from Breda
- GAIM: GTK+
GTK+ is a cross-platform widget toolkit for creating graphical user interfaces. It is licensed under the terms of the GNU LGPL, allowing both free and proprietary software to use it. It is one of the most popular toolkits for the X Window System, along with Qt.The name GTK+ originates from GTK;...
AOLAOL Inc. is an American global Internet services and media company. AOL is headquartered at 770 Broadway in New York. Founded in 1983 as Control Video Corporation, it has franchised its services to companies in several nations around the world or set up international versions of its services...
Instant Messenger
- GIMP
GIMP is a free software raster graphics editor. It is primarily employed as an image retouching and editing tool and is freely available in versions tailored for most popular operating systems including Microsoft Windows, Apple Mac OS X, and Linux.In addition to detailed image retouching and...
: GNU Image Manipulation Program
- PAC-3: PATRIOT Advanced Capability 3 i.e., Phased Array Tracking RADAR Intercept on Target i.e., RAdio Detection And Ranging
- VHDL: VHSIC
VHSIC was a 1980s U.S. government program to develop very-high-speed integrated circuits.The United States Department of Defense launched the VHSIC project in 1980 as a joint tri-service project. The project led to advances in integrated circuit materials, lithography, packaging, testing, and...
hardware description language, where VHSIC stands for very-high-speed integrated circuit.
- Recursive acronyms, in which the abbreviation refers to itself
- GNU
GNU is a Unix-like computer operating system developed by the GNU project, ultimately aiming to be a "complete Unix-compatible software system"...
: GNU's not Unix!
- LAME
LAME is a free software codec used to encode/compress audio into the lossy MP3 file format.-History:The name LAME is a recursive acronym for "LAME Ain't an MP3 Encoder". Around mid-1998, Mike Cheng created LAME 1.0 as a set of modifications against the "8Hz-MP3" encoder source code...
: LAME Ain't an MP3MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III, more commonly referred to as MP3, is a patented digital audio encoding format using a form of lossy data compression...
Encoder
- WINE
Wine is a free software application that aims to allow computer programs written for Microsoft Windows to run on Unix-like operating systems. Wine also provides a software library, known as Winelib, against which developers can compile Windows applications to help port them to Unix-like...
: WINE Is Not an Emulator
- PHP
PHP is a general-purpose server-side scripting language originally designed for web development to produce dynamic web pages. For this purpose, PHP code is embedded into the HTML source document and interpreted by a web server with a PHP processor module, which generates the web page document...
: PHP hypertext pre-processor (formerly personal home page)
- These may go through multiple layers before the self-reference is found:
- HURD
GNU Hurd is a free software Unix-like replacement for the Unix kernel, released under the GNU General Public License. It has been under development since 1990 by the GNU Project of the Free Software Foundation...
: HIRD of Unix-replacing daemons, where "HIRD" stands for "HURD of interfaces representing depth"
- Pseudo-acronyms, which consist of a sequence of characters that, when pronounced as intended, invoke other, longer words with less typing (see also Internet slang
Internet slang is a type of slang that Internet users have popularized, and in many cases, have coined. Such terms often originate with the purpose of saving keystrokes. Many people use the same abbreviations in texting and instant messaging, and social networking websites...
)
- CQ
CQ is a code used by wireless operators, particularly those communicating in Morse code, but also by voice operators, to make a general call . Transmitting the letters CQ on a particular radio frequency is an invitation for any operators listening on that frequency to respond...
: "Seek you", a code used by radio operators (also is an editorial term meaning "Copy Qualified" in print media)
- IOU
An IOU is usually an informal document acknowledging debt. An IOU differs from a promissory note in that an IOU is not a negotiable instrument and does not specify repayment terms such as the time of repayment. IOUs usually specify the debtor, the amount owed, and sometimes the creditor...
: "I owe you" (true acronym would be IOY)
- K9: "Canine", used to designate police units utilizing dogs
- Q8
Q8 is the Kuwait Petroleum CorporationQ8 may also refer to:* Q8 * Quad 8, the Quadraphonic version of Stereo 8* Q , 4th series of Spike Milligan's TV comedy sketch show...
: "Kuwait"
- Initialisms whose last abbreviated word is often redundantly included
RAS syndrome , also known as PNS syndrome or RAP phrases , refers to the use of one or more of the words that make up an acronym or initialism in conjunction with the abbreviated form, thus in effect repeating one or more words...
anyway
- ATM
An automated teller machine or automatic teller machine, also known as a Cashpoint , cash machine or sometimes a hole in the wall in British English, is a computerised telecommunications device that provides the clients of a financial institution with access to financial transactions in a public...
machine: Automated Teller Machine machine
- DSW
-History:DSW opened its first store in July 1991 in Dublin, Ohio. In 1998, Value City Department Stores, Inc. purchased DSW. In December 2004, Retail Ventures, Inc. consolidated several brands. Until July 5, 2005, DSW operated as a wholly owned subsidiary of Retail Ventures, Inc...
Shoe Warehouse: Designer Shoe Warehouse Shoe Warehouse
- HIV virus: Human Immunodeficiency Virus virus
- PAN
Permanent Account Number is unique alphanumeric combination issued to all juristic entities identifiable under the Indian Income Tax Act 1961. It is issued by the Indian Income Tax Department under the supervision of the Central Board for Direct Taxes and is almost equivalent to a national...
number: Permanent Account Number number
- PIN
A personal identification number is a secret numeric password shared between a user and a system that can be used to authenticate the user to the system. Typically, the user is required to provide a non-confidential user identifier or token and a confidential PIN to gain access to the system...
number: Personal Identification Number number
- VIN
A Vehicle Identification Number, commonly abbreviated to VIN, is a unique serial number used by the automotive industry to identify individual motor vehicles. VINs were first used in 1954...
number: Vehicle Identification Number number
Historical and current use
Acronymy, like
retronymA retronym is a type of neologism that provides a new name for an object or concept to differentiate the original form or version of it from a more recent form or version. The original name is most often augmented with an adjective to account for later developments of the object or concept itself...
y, is a linguistic process that has existed throughout history but for which there was little to no
namingBroadly, any metalanguage is language or symbols used when language itself is being discussed or examined. In logic and linguistics, a metalanguage is a language used to make statements about statements in another language...
, conscious attention, or
systematic analysisLinguistics is the scientific study of human language. Linguistics can be broadly broken into three categories or subfields of study: language form, language meaning, and language in context....
until relatively recent times. Like retronymy, it became much more common in the 20th century than it had formerly been.
Ancient examples of acronymy (regardless of whether there was
metalanguageBroadly, any metalanguage is language or symbols used when language itself is being discussed or examined. In logic and linguistics, a metalanguage is a language used to make statements about statements in another language...
at the time to describe it) include the following:
- Initialisms were used in Rome before the Christian era. For example, the official name for the Roman Empire, and the Republic before it, was abbreviated as SPQR
SPQR is an initialism from a Latin phrase, Senatus Populusque Romanus , referring to the government of the ancient Roman Republic, and used as an official emblem of the modern day comune of Rome...
(Senatus Populusque Romanus).
- The early Christians in Rome used the image of a fish as a symbol for Jesus
Jesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...
in part because of an acronym—fish in Greek is ΙΧΘΥΣ (ichthysIchthys, from Koine Greek: , is the Greek word for "fish"....
), which was said to stand for {{Polytonic|Ἰησοῦς Χριστός Θεοῦ Υἱός Σωτήρ}} (Iesous CHristos THeou (h) Uios Soter: Jesus Christ, God's Son, Savior). Evidence of this interpretation dates from the 2nd and 3rd centuries and is preserved in the catacombsCatacombs, human-made subterranean passageways for religious practice. Any chamber used as a burial place can be described as a catacomb, although the word is most commonly associated with the Roman empire...
of Rome. And for centuries, the Church has used the inscription INRI over the crucifix, which stands for the Latin Iesus Nazarenus Rex Iudaeorum ("Jesus the Nazarene, King of the Jews").
- The Hebrew language has a long history of formation of acronyms pronounced as words, stretching back many centuries. The Hebrew Bible ("Old Testament") is known as "Tanakh", an acronym composed from the Hebrew initial letters of its three major sections: Torah (five books of Moses), Nevi'im (prophets), and K'tuvim (writings). Many rabbinical figures from the Middle Ages onward are referred to in rabbinical literature by their pronounced acronyms, such as Rambam (aka Maimonides, from the initial letters of his full Hebrew name (Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon) and Rashi (Rabbi Shlomo Yitzkhaki).
During the mid to late 19th century, an initialism-disseminating trend spread through the American and European business communities: abbreviating
corporationA corporation is created under the laws of a state as a separate legal entity that has privileges and liabilities that are distinct from those of its members. There are many different forms of corporations, most of which are used to conduct business. Early corporations were established by charter...
names in places where space was limited for writing — such as on the sides of
railroad carA railroad car or railway vehicle , also known as a bogie in Indian English, is a vehicle on a rail transport system that is used for the carrying of cargo or passengers. Cars can be coupled together into a train and hauled by one or more locomotives...
s (e.g., Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad → RF&P); on the sides of barrels and crates; and on
ticker tapeTicker tape was the earliest digital electronic communications medium, transmitting stock price information over telegraph lines, in use between around 1870 through 1970...
and in the small-print newspaper stock listings that got their data from it (e.g., American Telephone and Telegraph Company → AT&T). Some well-known commercial examples dating from the 1890s through 1920s include
NabiscoNabisco is an American brand of cookies and snacks. Headquartered in East Hanover, New Jersey, the company is a subsidiary of Illinois-based Kraft Foods. Nabisco's plant in Chicago, a production facility at 7300 S...
(National Biscuit Company),
EssoEsso is an international trade name for ExxonMobil and its related companies. Pronounced , it is derived from the initials of the pre-1911 Standard Oil, and as such became the focus of much litigation and regulatory restriction in the United States. In 1972, it was largely replaced in the U.S. by...
(from S.O., from
Standard OilStandard Oil was a predominant American integrated oil producing, transporting, refining, and marketing company. Established in 1870 as a corporation in Ohio, it was the largest oil refiner in the world and operated as a major company trust and was one of the world's first and largest multinational...
), and
SunocoSunoco Inc. is an American petroleum and petrochemical manufacturer headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, formerly known as Sun Company Inc. and Sun Oil Co. ....
(Sun Oil Company).
The widespread, frequent use of acronyms and initialisms across the whole range of
registersIn linguistics, a register is a variety of a language used for a particular purpose or in a particular social setting. For example, when speaking in a formal setting an English speaker may be more likely to adhere more closely to prescribed grammar, pronounce words ending in -ing with a velar nasal...
is a relatively new linguistic phenomenon in most languages, becoming increasingly evident since the mid-20th century. As literacy rates rose, and as advances in science and technology brought with them a constant stream of new (and sometimes more complex) terms and concepts, the practice of abbreviating terms became increasingly convenient. The
Oxford English DictionaryThe Oxford English Dictionary , published by the Oxford University Press, is the self-styled premier dictionary of the English language. Two fully bound print editions of the OED have been published under its current name, in 1928 and 1989. The first edition was published in twelve volumes , and...
(OED) records the first printed use of the word initialism as occurring in 1899, but it did not come into general use until 1965, well after acronym had become common.
By 1943, the term acronym had been used in English to recognize abbreviations (and contractions of phrases) that were pronounced as words. (It was formed from the
GreekGreek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
words ἄκρος, akros, "topmost, extreme" and ὄνομα, onoma, "name.") For example, the army offense of being absent without official leave was abbreviated to "
A.W.O.L.In military terminology, desertion is the abandonment of a "duty" or post without permission and is done with the intention of not returning...
" in reports, but when pronounced as a word ('awol'), it became an acronym. While initial letters are commonly used to form an acronym, the original definition was a word made from the initial letters or syllables of other words, for example
UNIVACThe UNIVAC I was the first commercial computer produced in the United States. It was designed principally by J. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly, the inventors of the ENIAC...
from UNIVersal Automatic Computer.
In English, acronyms pronounced as words may be a 20th-century phenomenon. Linguist David Wilton in Word Myths: Debunking Linguistic Urban Legends claims that "forming words from acronyms is a distinctly twentieth- (and now twenty-first-) century phenomenon. There is only one known pre-twentieth-century [English] word with an acronymic origin and it was in vogue for only a short time in 1886. The word is colinderies or colinda, an acronym for the Colonial and Indian Exposition held in London in that year."
Early examples in English
- The use of Latin and Neo-Latin terms in vernacular
A vernacular is the native language or native dialect of a specific population, as opposed to a language of wider communication that is not native to the population, such as a national language or lingua franca.- Etymology :The term is not a recent one...
s has been pan-European and predates modern English. Some examples of initialisms in this class are:
- A.M.
The 12-hour clock is a time conversion convention in which the 24 hours of the day are divided into two periods called ante meridiem and post meridiem...
(from Latin ante meridiem, "before noon") and P.M.The 12-hour clock is a time conversion convention in which the 24 hours of the day are divided into two periods called ante meridiem and post meridiem...
(from Latin post meridiem, "after noon")
- A.D. (from Latin Anno Domini
and Before Christ are designations used to label or number years used with the Julian and Gregorian calendars....
, "in the year of our Lord") (whose complement in English, B.C. [Before Christ], is English-sourced)
- O.K.
"Okay" is a colloquial English word denoting approval, acceptance, agreement, assent, or acknowledgment. "Okay" has frequently turned up as a loanword in many other languages...
, a term of disputed origin, dating back at least to the early 19th century, now used around the world
- The etymology
Etymology is the study of the history of words, their origins, and how their form and meaning have changed over time.For languages with a long written history, etymologists make use of texts in these languages and texts about the languages to gather knowledge about how words were used during...
of the word alphabet itself comes to Middle EnglishMiddle English is the stage in the history of the English language during the High and Late Middle Ages, or roughly during the four centuries between the late 11th and the late 15th century....
from the Late LatinLate Latin is the scholarly name for the written Latin of Late Antiquity. The English dictionary definition of Late Latin dates this period from the 3rd to the 6th centuries AD extending in Spain to the 7th. This somewhat ambiguously defined period fits between Classical Latin and Medieval Latin...
Alphabetum, which in turn derives from the Ancient GreekAncient Greek is the stage of the Greek language in the periods spanning the times c. 9th–6th centuries BC, , c. 5th–4th centuries BC , and the c. 3rd century BC – 6th century AD of ancient Greece and the ancient world; being predated in the 2nd millennium BC by Mycenaean Greek...
Alphabetos, from alphaAlpha is the first letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals it has a value of 1. It was derived from the Phoenician letter Aleph...
and betaBeta is the second letter of the Greek alphabet. In Ancient Greek, beta represented the voiced bilabial plosive . In Modern Greek, it represents the voiced labiodental fricative ....
, the first two letters of the Greek alphabetThe Greek alphabet is the script that has been used to write the Greek language since at least 730 BC . The alphabet in its classical and modern form consists of 24 letters ordered in sequence from alpha to omega...
. In colloquial terms, learning the alphabet is called learning one's ABCs.
Current use
Acronyms and initialisms are used most often to abbreviate names of organizations and long or frequently referenced terms. The
armed forcesA military is an organization authorized by its greater society to use lethal force, usually including use of weapons, in defending its country by combating actual or perceived threats. The military may have additional functions of use to its greater society, such as advancing a political agenda e.g...
and government agencies frequently employ initialisms (and occasionally, acronyms); some well-known examples from the United States are among the "
alphabet agenciesIn total, at least 100 offices were created during Roosevelt's terms of office as part of the New Deal, and "even the Comptroller-General of the United States, who audits the government's accounts, declared he had never heard of some of them." While previously all monetary appropriations had been...
" created by
Franklin D. RooseveltFranklin Delano Roosevelt , also known by his initials, FDR, was the 32nd President of the United States and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...
under the
New DealThe New Deal was a series of economic programs implemented in the United States between 1933 and 1936. They were passed by the U.S. Congress during the first term of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The programs were Roosevelt's responses to the Great Depression, and focused on what historians call...
. Business and industry also are prolific coiners of acronyms and initialisms. The rapid advance of science and technology in recent centuries seems to be an underlying force driving the usage, as new inventions and concepts with multiword names create a demand for shorter, more manageable names. One representative example, from the U.S. Navy, is COMCRUDESPAC, which stands for commander, cruisers destroyers Pacific; it's also seen as "ComCruDesPac". "YABA-compatible" (where YABA stands for "yet another bloody acronym") is used to mean that a term's acronym can be pronounced but is not an offensive word (e.g., "When choosing a new name, be sure it is "YABA-compatible").
The use of initialisms has been further popularized with the emergence of Short Message Systems (SMS). To fit messages into the 160-Character limit of SMS, initialisms such as "GF" (girl friend), "LOL" (laughing out loud), and "DL" (download or down low) have been popularized into the mainstream. Although
prescriptivistIn linguistics, prescription denotes normative practices on such aspects of language use as spelling, grammar, pronunciation, and syntax. It includes judgments on what usages are socially proper and politically correct...
disdain for such neologism is fashionable, and can be useful when the goal is protecting message receivers from crypticness, it is scientifically groundless when couched as preserving the "purity" or "legitimacy" of language; this neologism is merely the latest instance of a perennial linguistic principle—the same one that in the 19th century prompted the aforementioned abbreviation of corporation names in places where space for writing was limited (e.g., ticker tape, newspaper
column inchA column inch is a measurement of the amount of content in published works that use multiple columns per page. A column inch is a unit of space one column wide by one inch high.-A newspaper page:...
es).
Aids to learning the expansion without leaving a document
The expansion is typically given at the first occurrence of the acronym within a given text, for the benefit of those readers who do not know what it stands for. The capitalization of the original term is independent of it being acronymized, being lowercase for a term such as frequently asked questions (FAQ) but uppercase for a proper name such as the United Nations (UN).
In addition to expansion at first use, some publications also have a key listing all acronyms or initialisms used therein and what their expansions are. This is a convenience to readers for two reasons. The first is that if they are not reading the entire publication sequentially (which is a common mode of reading), then they may encounter an acronym without having seen its expansion. Having a key at the start or end of the publication obviates skimming over the text searching for an earlier use to find the expansion. (This is especially important in the print medium, where no search utility is available.) The second reason for the key feature is its pedagogical value in educational works such as textbooks. It gives students a way to review the meanings of the acronyms introduced in a chapter after they have done the line-by-line reading, and also a way to quiz themselves on the meanings (by covering up the expansion column and recalling the expansions from memory, then checking their answers by uncovering.)
Expansion at first use and the abbreviation-key feature are aids to the reader that originated in the print era, and they are equally useful in print and online. In addition, the online medium offers yet more aids, such as
tooltipThe tooltip or infotip is a common graphical user interface element. It is used in conjunction with a cursor, usually a mouse pointer. The user hovers the cursor over an item, without clicking it, and a tooltip may appear—a small "hover box" with information about the item being hovered...
s and
hyperlinkIn computing, a hyperlink is a reference to data that the reader can directly follow, or that is followed automatically. A hyperlink points to a whole document or to a specific element within a document. Hypertext is text with hyperlinks...
s.
Jargon
Acronyms and initialisms often occur in
jargonJargon is terminology which is especially defined in relationship to a specific activity, profession, group, or event. The philosophe Condillac observed in 1782 that "Every science requires a special language because every science has its own ideas." As a rationalist member of the Enlightenment he...
. An initialism may have different meanings in different areas of industry, writing, and scholarship. The general reason for this is convenience and succinctness for specialists, although it has led some to obfuscate the meaning either intentionally, to deter those without such domain-specific knowledge, or unintentionally, by creating an initialism that already existed.
The medical literature has been struggling to control the proliferation of acronyms as their use has evolved from aiding communication to hindering it. This has become such a problem that it is even evaluated at the level of medical academies such as the American Academy of Dermatology.
As Mnemonics
Acronyms and initialisms are often taught as
mnemonicA mnemonic , or mnemonic device, is any learning technique that aids memory. To improve long term memory, mnemonic systems are used to make memorization easier. Commonly encountered mnemonics are often verbal, such as a very short poem or a special word used to help a person remember something,...
devices, for example in physics the colors of the visible spectrum are
ROY G. BIVROYGBIV is an acronym for the visible part of the electromagnetic light spectrum:* Red* Orange* Yellow* Green* Blue* Indigo* VioletA rainbow spans a continuous spectrum of colors; the distinct bands are an artifact of human color vision...
(red-orange-yellow-green-blue-indigo-violet). They are also used as mental checklists, for example in aviation:
GUMPSGUMPS is an acronym widely used by fixed wing aircraft pilots as a mental checklist to ensure nothing critical has been forgotten before landing...
, which is Gas-Undercarriage-Mixture-Propeller-Seatbelts. Other examples of mnemonic acronyms and initialisms include
CAN SLIMCAN SLIM refers to the seven-pronged mnemonic publicized by the American newspaper Investor's Business Daily, which claims to be a checklist of the characteristics performing stocks tend to share before their biggest gains...
, and
PAVPANICPAVPANIC is a mnemonic device used in remembering the parts of speech in the English language.The eight letters in PAVPANIC stand for*P Pronouns*A Adjectives*V Verbs*P Prepositions*A Adverbs*N Nouns...
.
Acronyms as legendary etymology
{{See also|Backronym}}
It is not uncommon for acronyms to be cited in a kind of
false etymologyFolk etymology is change in a word or phrase over time resulting from the replacement of an unfamiliar form by a more familiar one. Unanalyzable borrowings from foreign languages, like asparagus, or old compounds such as samblind which have lost their iconic motivation are...
, called a folk etymology, for a word. Such etymologies persist in popular culture but have no factual basis in
historical linguisticsHistorical linguistics is the study of language change. It has five main concerns:* to describe and account for observed changes in particular languages...
, and are examples of language-related
urban legendAn urban legend, urban myth, urban tale, or contemporary legend, is a form of modern folklore consisting of stories that may or may not have been believed by their tellers to be true...
s. For example,
copA police officer is a warranted employee of a police force...
is commonly cited as being derived, it is presumed, from "constable on patrol," posh from "port out, starboard home", and
golfGolf is a precision club and ball sport, in which competing players use many types of clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a golf course using the fewest number of strokes....
from "gentlemen only, ladies forbidden". Taboo words in particular commonly have such false etymologies:
shitShit is usually considered vulgar and profane in Modern English. As a noun it refers to fecal matter and as a verb it means to defecate or defecate in; in the plural it means diarrhea...
from "ship/store high in transit" or "special high-intensity training" and
fuck"Fuck" is an English word that is generally considered obscene which, in its most literal meaning, refers to the act of sexual intercourse. By extension it may be used to negatively characterize anything that can be dismissed, disdained, defiled, or destroyed."Fuck" can be used as a verb, adverb,...
from "for unlawful carnal knowledge", or "fornication under consent of the king".
Showing the ellipsis of letters
In English, abbreviations have traditionally been written with a
full stop/period/pointA full stop is the punctuation mark commonly placed at the end of sentences. In American English, the term used for this punctuation is period. In the 21st century, it is often also called a dot by young people...
in place of the deleted part to show the ellipsis of letters, although the
colonThe colon is a punctuation mark consisting of two equally sized dots centered on the same vertical line.-Usage:A colon informs the reader that what follows the mark proves, explains, or lists elements of what preceded the mark....
and
apostropheThe apostrophe is a punctuation mark, and sometimes a diacritic mark, in languages that use the Latin alphabet or certain other alphabets...
have also had this role. In the case of most acronyms and initialisms, each letter is an abbreviation of a separate word and, in theory, should get its own termination mark. Such punctuation is diminishing with the belief that the presence of all-capital letters is sufficient to indicate that the word is an abbreviation.
Ellipsis-is-understood style
Some influential
style guideA style guide or style manual is a set of standards for the writing and design of documents, either for general use or for a specific publication, organization or field...
s, such as that of the
BBCThe British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
, no longer require punctuation to show ellipsis; some even proscribe it. Larry Trask, American author of The
PenguinPenguin Books is a publisher founded in 1935 by Sir Allen Lane and V.K. Krishna Menon. Penguin revolutionised publishing in the 1930s through its high quality, inexpensive paperbacks, sold through Woolworths and other high street stores for sixpence. Penguin's success demonstrated that large...
Guide to Punctuation, states categorically that, in
British EnglishBritish English, or English , is the broad term used to distinguish the forms of the English language used in the United Kingdom from forms used elsewhere...
, "this tiresome and unnecessary practice is now obsolete", though some other sources are not so absolute in their pronouncements.
Pronunciation-dependent style
Nevertheless, some influential
style guideA style guide or style manual is a set of standards for the writing and design of documents, either for general use or for a specific publication, organization or field...
s, many of them
AmericanAmerican English is a set of dialects of the English language used mostly in the United States. Approximately two-thirds of the world's native speakers of English live in the United States....
, still require periods in certain instances. For example,
The New York TimesThe New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
’ guide recommends following each segment with a period when the letters are pronounced individually, as in
K.G.B.The KGB was the commonly used acronym for the . It was the national security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 until 1991, and was the premier internal security, intelligence, and secret police organization during that time.The State Security Agency of the Republic of Belarus currently uses the...
, but not when pronounced as a word, as in
NATO. The logic of this style is that the pronunciation is reflected graphically by the punctuation scheme.
Other conventions
When a multiple-letter abbreviation is formed from a single word, periods are in general not used, although they may be common in informal usage. TV, for example, may stand for a single word (television or transvestite, for instance), and is in general spelled without punctuation (except in the plural). Although PS stands for the single word postscript (or the Latin postscriptum), it is often spelled with periods (P.S.).
The
slashThe slash is a sign used as a punctuation mark and for various other purposes. It is now often called a forward slash , and many other alternative names.-History:...
('/', a.k.a. virgule) is sometimes used to show the ellipsis of letters, for instance in the initialisms N/A (not applicable, not available) and w/o (without).
Inconveniently long words used frequently in related contexts can be represented according to their letter count. For example, i18n abbreviates
internationalizationIn economics, internationalization has been viewed as a process of increasing involvement of enterprises in international markets, although there is no agreed definition of internationalization or international entrepreneurship...
, a computer-science term for adapting software for worldwide use. The 18 represents the 18 letters that come between the first and the last in internationalization. Localization can be abbreviated l10n, multilingualization m17n, and
accessibilityAccessibility is a general term used to describe the degree to which a product, device, service, or environment is available to as many people as possible. Accessibility can be viewed as the "ability to access" and benefit from some system or entity...
a11y. In addition to the use of a specific number replacing that amount of letters, the more general "x" can be used to replace an unspecified number of letters (e.g., Crxn for crystallization).
Representing plurals and possessives
The traditional style of pluralizing single letters with the addition of ’s (for example, B’s come after A’s) was extended to some of the earliest initialisms, which tended to be written with periods to indicate the omission of letters; some writers still pluralize initialisms in this way. Some style guides continue to require such apostrophes{{ndash}} perhaps partly to make it clear that the lower case s is only for pluralization and would not appear in the singular form of the word, for some acronyms and abbreviations do include lowercase letters.
However, it has become common among many writers to
inflectIn grammar, inflection or inflexion is the modification of a word to express different grammatical categories such as tense, grammatical mood, grammatical voice, aspect, person, number, gender and case...
initialisms as ordinary words, using simple s, without an apostrophe, for the plural. In this case, compact discs becomes CDs. The logic here is that the apostrophe should be restricted to possessives: for example, the CD's label (the label of the compact disc).
Multiple options arise when initialisms are spelled with periods and are pluralized: for example, whether compact discs may become C.D.'s, C.D.s, or CDs. Possessive plurals that also include apostrophes for mere pluralization and periods appear especially complex: for example, the C.D.’s’ labels (the labels of the compact discs). This is yet another reason to use apostrophes only for possessives and not for plurals. In some instances, however, an apostrophe may increase clarity: for example, if the final letter of an abbreviation is S, as in SOS's, or when pluralizing an abbreviation that has periods. (In The New York Times, the plural possessive of G.I., which the newspaper prints with periods in reference to
United States ArmyThe United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
soldiers, is G.I.'s, with no apostrophe after the s.)
A particularly rich source of options arises when the plural of an initialism would normally be indicated in a word other than the final word if spelled out in full. A classic example is Member of Parliament, which in plural is Members of Parliament. It is possible then to abbreviate this as M's P. (or similar), as famously used by a former Australian Prime Minister.{{Citation needed|date=December 2008}} This usage is less common than forms with s at the end, such as MPs, and may appear dated or pedantic. In common usage, therefore, weapons of mass destruction becomes WMDs, prisoners of war becomes POWs, and runs batted in becomes RBIs.
The argument that initialisms should have no different plural form (for example, "If D can stand for disc, it can also stand for discs") is in general disregarded because of the practicality in distinguishing singulars and plurals. This is not the case, however, when the abbreviation is understood to describe a plural noun already: For example, U.S. is short for United States, but not United State. In this case, the options for making a possessive form of an abbreviation that is already in its plural form without a final s may seem awkward: for example, U.S.’, U.S.'s, etc. In such instances, possessive abbreviations are often foregone in favor of simple
attributiveIn grammar, an adjective is a 'describing' word; the main syntactic role of which is to qualify a noun or noun phrase, giving more information about the object signified....
usage (for example, the U.S. economy) or expanding the abbreviation to its full form and then making the possessive (for example, the United States’ economy). On the other hand, in speech, the pronunciation United States's sometimes is used.
Abbreviations that come from single, rather than multiple, words{{ndash}} such as TV (television){{ndash}} are pluralized without apostrophes: the apostrophe should be reserved for the possessive (TVs).
{{anchor|pp|PP|pP|Pp|page|pages}}In some languages, the convention of doubling the letters in the initialism is used to indicate plural words: for example, the Spanish EE. UU., for Estados Unidos (United States). This old convention is still followed for a limited number of English abbreviations, such as SS. for Saints, pp. for pages (although this is actually derived from the Latin abbreviation for paginae{{Citation needed|date=February 2009}}) or MSS for manuscripts.
Acronyms that are now always rendered in the lower case are pluralized as regular English nouns: for example, lasers.
When an initialism is part of a function in computing that is conventionally written in lower case, it is common to use an
apostropheThe apostrophe is a punctuation mark, and sometimes a diacritic mark, in languages that use the Latin alphabet or certain other alphabets...
to pluralize or otherwise conjugate the token. This practice results in such sentences like "Be sure to remove extraneous
.dllDynamic-link library , or DLL, is Microsoft's implementation of the shared library concept in the Microsoft Windows and OS/2 operating systems...
's" (more than one .dll). However, despite the pervasiveness of this practice, it is generally held to be incorrect; the preferred method being to simply append an s, without the apostrophe.
In computer
lingoSpeech community is a group of people who share a set of norms and expectations regarding the use of language. Speech communities can be members of a profession with a specialized jargon, distinct social groups like high school students or hip hop fans , or even tight-knit groups like families and...
, it is common to use the name of a computer program, format, or function, acronym or not, as a verb. In such verbification of abbreviations, there is confusion about how to conjugate: for example, if the verb IM means to send (someone) an instant message, the past tense may be rendered IM’ed, IMed, IM’d, or IMd{{ndash}} and the third-person singular present indicative may be IM's or IMs.
All-caps style
The most common
capitalizationCapitalization is writing a word with its first letter as a majuscule and the remaining letters in minuscules . This of course only applies to those writing systems which have a case distinction...
scheme seen with acronyms and initialisms is all-uppercase (
all-capsIn typography, all caps refers to text or a font in which all letters are capital letters. All caps is usually used for emphasis. It is commonly seen in the titles on book covers, in advertisements and in newspaper headlines...
), except for those few that have linguistically taken on an identity as regular words, with the acronymous etymology of the words fading into the background of common knowledge, such as has occurred with the words
scubaA scuba set is an independent breathing set that provides a scuba diver with the breathing gas necessary to breathe underwater during scuba diving. It is much used for sport diving and some sorts of work diving....
,
laserA laser is a device that emits light through a process of optical amplification based on the stimulated emission of photons. The term "laser" originated as an acronym for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation...
, and
radarRadar is an object-detection system which uses radio waves to determine the range, altitude, direction, or speed of objects. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, weather formations, and terrain. The radar dish or antenna transmits pulses of radio...
— these are known as anacronyms (a portmanteau with
anachronismAn anachronism—from the Greek ανά and χρόνος — is an inconsistency in some chronological arrangement, especially a chronological misplacing of persons, events, objects, or customs in regard to each other...
).{{citation needed|date=March 2011}}
Small-caps variant
Small capsIn typography, small capitals are uppercase characters set at the same height and weight as surrounding lowercase letters or text figures...
are sometimes used to make the run of capital letters seem less jarring to the reader. For example, the style of some American publications, including the Atlantic Monthly and
USA TodayUSA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...
, is to use small caps for acronyms and initialisms longer than three letters{{Citation needed|date=August 2007}}; thus "U.S." and "
FDRFranklin Delano Roosevelt , also known by his initials, FDR, was the 32nd President of the United States and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...
" in normal caps, but "{{sc||NATO}}" in small caps. The initialisms "
{{Selfref|For acronyms used on Wikipedia, see Wikipedia:Acronyms.}}
Acronyms and initialisms are abbreviationAn abbreviation is a shortened form of a word or phrase. Usually, but not always, it consists of a letter or group of letters taken from the word or phrase...
s formed from the initial components in a phrase or a word. These components may be individual letters (as in CEO) or parts of words (as in
BeneluxThe Benelux is an economic union in Western Europe comprising three neighbouring countries, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg. These countries are located in northwestern Europe between France and Germany...
and
AmeslanAmerican Sign Language, or ASL, for a time also called Ameslan, is the dominant sign language of Deaf Americans, including deaf communities in the United States, in the English-speaking parts of Canada, and in some regions of Mexico...
). There is no universal agreement on the precise definition of the various terms (see nomenclature), nor on written usage (see orthographic styling). While popular in recent English, such abbreviations have historical use in English as well as other languages. As a type of
word formationIn linguistics, word formation is the creation of a new word. Word formation is sometimes contrasted with semantic change, which is a change in a single word's meaning...
process, acronyms and initialisms are viewed as a subtype of
blendIn linguistics, a blend is a word formed from parts of two or more other words. These parts are sometimes, but not always, morphemes.-Linguistics:...
ing.
Nomenclature
The term acronym is the name for a word created from the first letters of each word in a series of words (such as
sonarSonar is a technique that uses sound propagation to navigate, communicate with or detect other vessels...
, created from sound navigation and ranging). Attestations for "Akronym" in German are known from 1921, and for "acronym" in English from 1940. While the word
abbreviationAn abbreviation is a shortened form of a word or phrase. Usually, but not always, it consists of a letter or group of letters taken from the word or phrase...
refers to any shortened form of a word or a phrase, some have used initialism or alphabetism to refer to an abbreviation formed simply from, and used simply as, a string of initials.
Although the term acronym is widely used to describe any abbreviation formed from initial letters, "Users of the term acronym make no distinction between those pronounced as words … and those pronounced as a series of characters" —Jean Praninskas, Trade Name Creation, 1968.
"It is not J.C.B.'s fault that its name, let alone its acronym, is not a household word among European scholars" —Times Literary Supp. 5 February 1970.
"… the confusion in the Pentagon about abbreviations and acronyms—words formed from the first letters of other words" —Bernard Weinraub., N.Y. Times, 11 December 1978Pyles & Algeo 1970 divide acronyms into "initialisms", which consists of initial letters pronounced with the letter names, and "word acronyms", which are pronounced as words. Initialism, an older word than acronym, seems to be too little known to the general public to serve as the customary term standing in contrast with acronym in a narrow sense. most dictionaries define acronym to mean "a word" in its original sense, while some include a secondary indication of usage, attributing to acronym the same meaning as that of initialism. According to the primary definition found in most dictionaries, examples of acronyms are
NATO (ˈ),
scubaScuba diving is a form of underwater diving in which a diver uses a scuba set to breathe underwater....
(ˈ), and
radarRadar is an object-detection system which uses radio waves to determine the range, altitude, direction, or speed of objects. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, weather formations, and terrain. The radar dish or antenna transmits pulses of radio...
(ˈ), while examples of initialisms are FBI (ˌ) and
HTMLHyperText Markup Language is the predominant markup language for web pages. HTML elements are the basic building-blocks of webpages....
(ˌ).
There is no agreement on what to call abbreviations whose pronunciation involves the combination of letter names and words, such as
JPEGIn computing, JPEG . The degree of compression can be adjusted, allowing a selectable tradeoff between storage size and image quality. JPEG typically achieves 10:1 compression with little perceptible loss in image quality....
(ˈ) and
MS-DOSMS-DOS is an operating system for x86-based personal computers. It was the most commonly used member of the DOS family of operating systems, and was the main operating system for IBM PC compatible personal computers during the 1980s to the mid 1990s, until it was gradually superseded by operating...
(ˌ).
There is also some disagreement as to what to call abbreviations that some speakers pronounce as letters and others pronounce as a word. For example, the terms
URLIn computing, a uniform resource locator or universal resource locator is a specific character string that constitutes a reference to an Internet resource....
and
IRAAn individual retirement arrangement is the blanket term for a form of retirement plan that provides tax advantages for retirement savings in the United States...
can be pronounced as individual letters: ˌ and ˌ, respectively; or as a single word: ˈ and ˈ, respectively. Such constructions, however—regardless of how they are pronounced—if formed from initials, may be identified as initialisms without controversy.
The spelled-out form of an acronym or initialism (that is, what it stands for) is called its expansion.
Comparing a few examples of each type
- Pronounced as a word, containing only initial letters
- AIDS
Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...
: acquired immune deficiency syndrome
- ASBO
Åsbo can refer to:*Åsbo Northern Hundred, a hundred in Scania*Åsbo Southern Hundred, a hundred in Scania...
: Antisocial Behaviour Order
- NATO: North Atlantic Treaty Organization
- Scuba
A scuba set is an independent breathing set that provides a scuba diver with the breathing gas necessary to breathe underwater during scuba diving. It is much used for sport diving and some sorts of work diving....
: self-contained underwater breathing apparatus
- Laser
A laser is a device that emits light through a process of optical amplification based on the stimulated emission of photons. The term "laser" originated as an acronym for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation...
: Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation
- Pronounced as a word, containing non-initial letters
- Amphetamine
Amphetamine or amfetamine is a psychostimulant drug of the phenethylamine class which produces increased wakefulness and focus in association with decreased fatigue and appetite.Brand names of medications that contain, or metabolize into, amphetamine include Adderall, Dexedrine, Dextrostat,...
: alpha-methyl-phenethylamine
- Gestapo
The Gestapo was the official secret police of Nazi Germany. Beginning on 20 April 1934, it was under the administration of the SS leader Heinrich Himmler in his position as Chief of German Police...
: Geheime Staatspolizei (secret state police)
- Interpol
Interpol, whose full name is the International Criminal Police Organization – INTERPOL, is an organization facilitating international police cooperation...
: International Criminal Police Organization
- Mavica: Magnetic video camera
- Nabisco
Nabisco is an American brand of cookies and snacks. Headquartered in East Hanover, New Jersey, the company is a subsidiary of Illinois-based Kraft Foods. Nabisco's plant in Chicago, a production facility at 7300 S...
: National Biscuit Company
- Pronounced as a word, containing a mixture of initial and non-initial letters
- Necco
Necco , pronounced "neck-o", is the acronym for the New England Confectionery Company, a manufacturer of candy. It was created in 1901 by the merger of several small confectionery companies located in the Greater Boston area; since December 2007 Necco has been owned by American Capital.The company...
: New England Confectionery Company
- Radar
Radar is an object-detection system which uses radio waves to determine the range, altitude, direction, or speed of objects. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, weather formations, and terrain. The radar dish or antenna transmits pulses of radio...
: radio detection and ranging
- Pronounced as a word or names of letters, depending on speaker or context
- FAQ
Frequently asked questions are listed questions and answers, all supposed to be commonly asked in some context, and pertaining to a particular topic. "FAQ" is usually pronounced as an initialism rather than an acronym, but an acronym form does exist. Since the acronym FAQ originated in textual...
: ([fæk] or F A Q) frequently asked questions
- IRA
An individual retirement arrangement is the blanket term for a form of retirement plan that provides tax advantages for retirement savings in the United States...
: When used for Individual Retirement AccountAn individual retirement arrangement is the blanket term for a form of retirement plan that provides tax advantages for retirement savings in the United States...
, can be pronounced as letters (I R A) or as a word [ˈaɪrə].
- SAT
The SAT Reasoning Test is a standardized test for college admissions in the United States. The SAT is owned, published, and developed by the College Board, a nonprofit organization in the United States. It was formerly developed, published, and scored by the Educational Testing Service which still...
: ([sæt] or S A T) (previously) Scholastic Achievement (or Aptitude) Test(s), now claimed not to stand for anything.
- SQL
SQL is a programming language designed for managing data in relational database management systems ....
: ([siːkwəl] or S Q L) Structured Query Language.
- Pronounced as a combination of names of letters and a word
- CD-ROM
A CD-ROM is a pre-pressed compact disc that contains data accessible to, but not writable by, a computer for data storage and music playback. The 1985 “Yellow Book” standard developed by Sony and Philips adapted the format to hold any form of binary data....
: (C-D-[rɒm]) Compact Disc read-only memory
- IUPAC: (I-U-[pæk]) International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry
- JPEG
In computing, JPEG . The degree of compression can be adjusted, allowing a selectable tradeoff between storage size and image quality. JPEG typically achieves 10:1 compression with little perceptible loss in image quality....
: (J-[pɛɡ]) Joint Photographic Experts Group
- SFMOMA
The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art is a modern art museum located in San Francisco, California. A nonprofit organization, SFMOMA holds an internationally recognized collection of modern and contemporary art and was the first museum on the West Coast devoted solely to 20th century art...
: (S-F-[moʊmə]) San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
- DSCAM
DSCAM and Dscam are both abbreviations for Down Syndrome Cell Adhesion Molecule. The case difference is significant: DSCAM refers to the human protein, and Dscam refers to its analog in Drosophila....
: (dee-scam) Down Syndrome Cell Adhesion Molecule
- Pronounced only as the names of letters
- BBC: British Broadcasting Corporation
- DNA
Deoxyribonucleic acid is a nucleic acid that contains the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms . The DNA segments that carry this genetic information are called genes, but other DNA sequences have structural purposes, or are involved in...
: deoxyribonucleic acid
- OEM
OEM means the original manufacturer of a component for a product, which may be resold by another company.OEM may also refer to:-Computing:* OEM font, or OEM-US, the original character set of the IBM PC, circa 1981...
: Original Equipment Manufacturer
- USA: United States of America
- IRA: When used for the Irish Republican Army
The Irish Republican Army was an Irish republican revolutionary military organisation. It was descended from the Irish Volunteers, an organisation established on 25 November 1913 that staged the Easter Rising in April 1916...
or organisations claiming descent from this group
- Pronounced as the names of letters but with a shortcut
- AAA:
- (triple A) American Automobile Association
AAA , formerly known as the American Automobile Association, is a federation of 51 independently operated motor clubs throughout North America. AAA is a not-for-profit member service organization with more than 51 million members. AAA provides services to its members such as travel, automotive,...
; abdominal aortic aneurysmAbdominal aortic aneurysm is a localized dilatation of the abdominal aorta exceeding the normal diameter by more than 50 percent, and is the most common form of aortic aneurysm...
; anti-aircraft artillery; Asistencia Asesoría y AdministraciónAsistencia Asesoría y Administración is a lucha libre professional wrestling promotion based in Mexico...
- (three As) Amateur Athletic Association
- IEEE
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers is a non-profit professional association headquartered in New York City that is dedicated to advancing technological innovation and excellence...
: (I triple E) Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
- NAACP
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, usually abbreviated as NAACP, is an African-American civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909. Its mission is "to ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights of all persons and to...
: (N double A C P) National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
- NCAA
The National Collegiate Athletic Association is a semi-voluntary association of 1,281 institutions, conferences, organizations and individuals that organizes the athletic programs of many colleges and universities in the United States...
: (N C double A or N C two A or {{lang|en|N C A A}}) National Collegiate Athletic Association
- Shortcut incorporated into name
- 3M
3M Company , formerly known as the Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company, is an American multinational conglomerate corporation based in Maplewood, Minnesota, United States....
: (three M) originally Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company
- E3: (E three) Electronic Entertainment Exposition
- W3C: (W three C) World Wide Web Consortium
- C4ISTAR
In military usage, a number of abbreviations in the format C followed by additional letters are used, based on expanded versions of the abbreviation C2 - command and control.C2I stands for command, control, and intelligence....
: (C four I star) Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance, Target Acquisition, and Reconnaissance
- Multi-layered acronyms
- NAC Breda
NAC Breda , simply often known as NAC, is a Dutch professional football club, based in Breda, Netherlands. NAC Breda play in the Rat Verlegh Stadium, named after their most important player, Antoon 'Rat' Verlegh. They play in the Dutch Eredivisie and are known by the fierce and fanatic support of...
: (Dutch football club) NOAD ADVENDO Combinatie ("NOAD ADVENDO Combination"), formed by the 1912 merger of two clubs, NOAD (Nooit Opgeven Altijd Doorgaan "Never give up, always persevere") and ADVENDO (Aangenaam Door Vermaak En Nuttig Door Ontspanning "Pleasant for its entertainment and useful for its relaxation") from Breda
- GAIM: GTK+
GTK+ is a cross-platform widget toolkit for creating graphical user interfaces. It is licensed under the terms of the GNU LGPL, allowing both free and proprietary software to use it. It is one of the most popular toolkits for the X Window System, along with Qt.The name GTK+ originates from GTK;...
AOLAOL Inc. is an American global Internet services and media company. AOL is headquartered at 770 Broadway in New York. Founded in 1983 as Control Video Corporation, it has franchised its services to companies in several nations around the world or set up international versions of its services...
Instant Messenger
- GIMP
GIMP is a free software raster graphics editor. It is primarily employed as an image retouching and editing tool and is freely available in versions tailored for most popular operating systems including Microsoft Windows, Apple Mac OS X, and Linux.In addition to detailed image retouching and...
: GNU Image Manipulation Program
- PAC-3: PATRIOT Advanced Capability 3 i.e., Phased Array Tracking RADAR Intercept on Target i.e., RAdio Detection And Ranging
- VHDL: VHSIC
VHSIC was a 1980s U.S. government program to develop very-high-speed integrated circuits.The United States Department of Defense launched the VHSIC project in 1980 as a joint tri-service project. The project led to advances in integrated circuit materials, lithography, packaging, testing, and...
hardware description language, where VHSIC stands for very-high-speed integrated circuit.
- Recursive acronyms, in which the abbreviation refers to itself
- GNU
GNU is a Unix-like computer operating system developed by the GNU project, ultimately aiming to be a "complete Unix-compatible software system"...
: GNU's not Unix!
- LAME
LAME is a free software codec used to encode/compress audio into the lossy MP3 file format.-History:The name LAME is a recursive acronym for "LAME Ain't an MP3 Encoder". Around mid-1998, Mike Cheng created LAME 1.0 as a set of modifications against the "8Hz-MP3" encoder source code...
: LAME Ain't an MP3MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III, more commonly referred to as MP3, is a patented digital audio encoding format using a form of lossy data compression...
Encoder
- WINE
Wine is a free software application that aims to allow computer programs written for Microsoft Windows to run on Unix-like operating systems. Wine also provides a software library, known as Winelib, against which developers can compile Windows applications to help port them to Unix-like...
: WINE Is Not an Emulator
- PHP
PHP is a general-purpose server-side scripting language originally designed for web development to produce dynamic web pages. For this purpose, PHP code is embedded into the HTML source document and interpreted by a web server with a PHP processor module, which generates the web page document...
: PHP hypertext pre-processor (formerly personal home page)
- These may go through multiple layers before the self-reference is found:
- HURD
GNU Hurd is a free software Unix-like replacement for the Unix kernel, released under the GNU General Public License. It has been under development since 1990 by the GNU Project of the Free Software Foundation...
: HIRD of Unix-replacing daemons, where "HIRD" stands for "HURD of interfaces representing depth"
- Pseudo-acronyms, which consist of a sequence of characters that, when pronounced as intended, invoke other, longer words with less typing (see also Internet slang
Internet slang is a type of slang that Internet users have popularized, and in many cases, have coined. Such terms often originate with the purpose of saving keystrokes. Many people use the same abbreviations in texting and instant messaging, and social networking websites...
)
- CQ
CQ is a code used by wireless operators, particularly those communicating in Morse code, but also by voice operators, to make a general call . Transmitting the letters CQ on a particular radio frequency is an invitation for any operators listening on that frequency to respond...
: "Seek you", a code used by radio operators (also is an editorial term meaning "Copy Qualified" in print media)
- IOU
An IOU is usually an informal document acknowledging debt. An IOU differs from a promissory note in that an IOU is not a negotiable instrument and does not specify repayment terms such as the time of repayment. IOUs usually specify the debtor, the amount owed, and sometimes the creditor...
: "I owe you" (true acronym would be IOY)
- K9: "Canine", used to designate police units utilizing dogs
- Q8
Q8 is the Kuwait Petroleum CorporationQ8 may also refer to:* Q8 * Quad 8, the Quadraphonic version of Stereo 8* Q , 4th series of Spike Milligan's TV comedy sketch show...
: "Kuwait"
- Initialisms whose last abbreviated word is often redundantly included
RAS syndrome , also known as PNS syndrome or RAP phrases , refers to the use of one or more of the words that make up an acronym or initialism in conjunction with the abbreviated form, thus in effect repeating one or more words...
anyway
- ATM
An automated teller machine or automatic teller machine, also known as a Cashpoint , cash machine or sometimes a hole in the wall in British English, is a computerised telecommunications device that provides the clients of a financial institution with access to financial transactions in a public...
machine: Automated Teller Machine machine
- DSW
-History:DSW opened its first store in July 1991 in Dublin, Ohio. In 1998, Value City Department Stores, Inc. purchased DSW. In December 2004, Retail Ventures, Inc. consolidated several brands. Until July 5, 2005, DSW operated as a wholly owned subsidiary of Retail Ventures, Inc...
Shoe Warehouse: Designer Shoe Warehouse Shoe Warehouse
- HIV virus: Human Immunodeficiency Virus virus
- PAN
Permanent Account Number is unique alphanumeric combination issued to all juristic entities identifiable under the Indian Income Tax Act 1961. It is issued by the Indian Income Tax Department under the supervision of the Central Board for Direct Taxes and is almost equivalent to a national...
number: Permanent Account Number number
- PIN
A personal identification number is a secret numeric password shared between a user and a system that can be used to authenticate the user to the system. Typically, the user is required to provide a non-confidential user identifier or token and a confidential PIN to gain access to the system...
number: Personal Identification Number number
- VIN
A Vehicle Identification Number, commonly abbreviated to VIN, is a unique serial number used by the automotive industry to identify individual motor vehicles. VINs were first used in 1954...
number: Vehicle Identification Number number
Historical and current use
Acronymy, like
retronymA retronym is a type of neologism that provides a new name for an object or concept to differentiate the original form or version of it from a more recent form or version. The original name is most often augmented with an adjective to account for later developments of the object or concept itself...
y, is a linguistic process that has existed throughout history but for which there was little to no
namingBroadly, any metalanguage is language or symbols used when language itself is being discussed or examined. In logic and linguistics, a metalanguage is a language used to make statements about statements in another language...
, conscious attention, or
systematic analysisLinguistics is the scientific study of human language. Linguistics can be broadly broken into three categories or subfields of study: language form, language meaning, and language in context....
until relatively recent times. Like retronymy, it became much more common in the 20th century than it had formerly been.
Ancient examples of acronymy (regardless of whether there was
metalanguageBroadly, any metalanguage is language or symbols used when language itself is being discussed or examined. In logic and linguistics, a metalanguage is a language used to make statements about statements in another language...
at the time to describe it) include the following:
- Initialisms were used in Rome before the Christian era. For example, the official name for the Roman Empire, and the Republic before it, was abbreviated as SPQR
SPQR is an initialism from a Latin phrase, Senatus Populusque Romanus , referring to the government of the ancient Roman Republic, and used as an official emblem of the modern day comune of Rome...
(Senatus Populusque Romanus).
- The early Christians in Rome used the image of a fish as a symbol for Jesus
Jesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...
in part because of an acronym—fish in Greek is ΙΧΘΥΣ (ichthysIchthys, from Koine Greek: , is the Greek word for "fish"....
), which was said to stand for {{Polytonic|Ἰησοῦς Χριστός Θεοῦ Υἱός Σωτήρ}} (Iesous CHristos THeou (h) Uios Soter: Jesus Christ, God's Son, Savior). Evidence of this interpretation dates from the 2nd and 3rd centuries and is preserved in the catacombsCatacombs, human-made subterranean passageways for religious practice. Any chamber used as a burial place can be described as a catacomb, although the word is most commonly associated with the Roman empire...
of Rome. And for centuries, the Church has used the inscription INRI over the crucifix, which stands for the Latin Iesus Nazarenus Rex Iudaeorum ("Jesus the Nazarene, King of the Jews").
- The Hebrew language has a long history of formation of acronyms pronounced as words, stretching back many centuries. The Hebrew Bible ("Old Testament") is known as "Tanakh", an acronym composed from the Hebrew initial letters of its three major sections: Torah (five books of Moses), Nevi'im (prophets), and K'tuvim (writings). Many rabbinical figures from the Middle Ages onward are referred to in rabbinical literature by their pronounced acronyms, such as Rambam (aka Maimonides, from the initial letters of his full Hebrew name (Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon) and Rashi (Rabbi Shlomo Yitzkhaki).
During the mid to late 19th century, an initialism-disseminating trend spread through the American and European business communities: abbreviating
corporationA corporation is created under the laws of a state as a separate legal entity that has privileges and liabilities that are distinct from those of its members. There are many different forms of corporations, most of which are used to conduct business. Early corporations were established by charter...
names in places where space was limited for writing — such as on the sides of
railroad carA railroad car or railway vehicle , also known as a bogie in Indian English, is a vehicle on a rail transport system that is used for the carrying of cargo or passengers. Cars can be coupled together into a train and hauled by one or more locomotives...
s (e.g., Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad → RF&P); on the sides of barrels and crates; and on
ticker tapeTicker tape was the earliest digital electronic communications medium, transmitting stock price information over telegraph lines, in use between around 1870 through 1970...
and in the small-print newspaper stock listings that got their data from it (e.g., American Telephone and Telegraph Company → AT&T). Some well-known commercial examples dating from the 1890s through 1920s include
NabiscoNabisco is an American brand of cookies and snacks. Headquartered in East Hanover, New Jersey, the company is a subsidiary of Illinois-based Kraft Foods. Nabisco's plant in Chicago, a production facility at 7300 S...
(National Biscuit Company),
EssoEsso is an international trade name for ExxonMobil and its related companies. Pronounced , it is derived from the initials of the pre-1911 Standard Oil, and as such became the focus of much litigation and regulatory restriction in the United States. In 1972, it was largely replaced in the U.S. by...
(from S.O., from
Standard OilStandard Oil was a predominant American integrated oil producing, transporting, refining, and marketing company. Established in 1870 as a corporation in Ohio, it was the largest oil refiner in the world and operated as a major company trust and was one of the world's first and largest multinational...
), and
SunocoSunoco Inc. is an American petroleum and petrochemical manufacturer headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, formerly known as Sun Company Inc. and Sun Oil Co. ....
(Sun Oil Company).
The widespread, frequent use of acronyms and initialisms across the whole range of
registersIn linguistics, a register is a variety of a language used for a particular purpose or in a particular social setting. For example, when speaking in a formal setting an English speaker may be more likely to adhere more closely to prescribed grammar, pronounce words ending in -ing with a velar nasal...
is a relatively new linguistic phenomenon in most languages, becoming increasingly evident since the mid-20th century. As literacy rates rose, and as advances in science and technology brought with them a constant stream of new (and sometimes more complex) terms and concepts, the practice of abbreviating terms became increasingly convenient. The
Oxford English DictionaryThe Oxford English Dictionary , published by the Oxford University Press, is the self-styled premier dictionary of the English language. Two fully bound print editions of the OED have been published under its current name, in 1928 and 1989. The first edition was published in twelve volumes , and...
(OED) records the first printed use of the word initialism as occurring in 1899, but it did not come into general use until 1965, well after acronym had become common.
By 1943, the term acronym had been used in English to recognize abbreviations (and contractions of phrases) that were pronounced as words. (It was formed from the
GreekGreek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
words ἄκρος, akros, "topmost, extreme" and ὄνομα, onoma, "name.") For example, the army offense of being absent without official leave was abbreviated to "
A.W.O.L.In military terminology, desertion is the abandonment of a "duty" or post without permission and is done with the intention of not returning...
" in reports, but when pronounced as a word ('awol'), it became an acronym. While initial letters are commonly used to form an acronym, the original definition was a word made from the initial letters or syllables of other words, for example
UNIVACThe UNIVAC I was the first commercial computer produced in the United States. It was designed principally by J. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly, the inventors of the ENIAC...
from UNIVersal Automatic Computer.
In English, acronyms pronounced as words may be a 20th-century phenomenon. Linguist David Wilton in Word Myths: Debunking Linguistic Urban Legends claims that "forming words from acronyms is a distinctly twentieth- (and now twenty-first-) century phenomenon. There is only one known pre-twentieth-century [English] word with an acronymic origin and it was in vogue for only a short time in 1886. The word is colinderies or colinda, an acronym for the Colonial and Indian Exposition held in London in that year."
Early examples in English
- The use of Latin and Neo-Latin terms in vernacular
A vernacular is the native language or native dialect of a specific population, as opposed to a language of wider communication that is not native to the population, such as a national language or lingua franca.- Etymology :The term is not a recent one...
s has been pan-European and predates modern English. Some examples of initialisms in this class are:
- A.M.
The 12-hour clock is a time conversion convention in which the 24 hours of the day are divided into two periods called ante meridiem and post meridiem...
(from Latin ante meridiem, "before noon") and P.M.The 12-hour clock is a time conversion convention in which the 24 hours of the day are divided into two periods called ante meridiem and post meridiem...
(from Latin post meridiem, "after noon")
- A.D. (from Latin Anno Domini
and Before Christ are designations used to label or number years used with the Julian and Gregorian calendars....
, "in the year of our Lord") (whose complement in English, B.C. [Before Christ], is English-sourced)
- O.K.
"Okay" is a colloquial English word denoting approval, acceptance, agreement, assent, or acknowledgment. "Okay" has frequently turned up as a loanword in many other languages...
, a term of disputed origin, dating back at least to the early 19th century, now used around the world
- The etymology
Etymology is the study of the history of words, their origins, and how their form and meaning have changed over time.For languages with a long written history, etymologists make use of texts in these languages and texts about the languages to gather knowledge about how words were used during...
of the word alphabet itself comes to Middle EnglishMiddle English is the stage in the history of the English language during the High and Late Middle Ages, or roughly during the four centuries between the late 11th and the late 15th century....
from the Late LatinLate Latin is the scholarly name for the written Latin of Late Antiquity. The English dictionary definition of Late Latin dates this period from the 3rd to the 6th centuries AD extending in Spain to the 7th. This somewhat ambiguously defined period fits between Classical Latin and Medieval Latin...
Alphabetum, which in turn derives from the Ancient GreekAncient Greek is the stage of the Greek language in the periods spanning the times c. 9th–6th centuries BC, , c. 5th–4th centuries BC , and the c. 3rd century BC – 6th century AD of ancient Greece and the ancient world; being predated in the 2nd millennium BC by Mycenaean Greek...
Alphabetos, from alphaAlpha is the first letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals it has a value of 1. It was derived from the Phoenician letter Aleph...
and betaBeta is the second letter of the Greek alphabet. In Ancient Greek, beta represented the voiced bilabial plosive . In Modern Greek, it represents the voiced labiodental fricative ....
, the first two letters of the Greek alphabetThe Greek alphabet is the script that has been used to write the Greek language since at least 730 BC . The alphabet in its classical and modern form consists of 24 letters ordered in sequence from alpha to omega...
. In colloquial terms, learning the alphabet is called learning one's ABCs.
Current use
Acronyms and initialisms are used most often to abbreviate names of organizations and long or frequently referenced terms. The
armed forcesA military is an organization authorized by its greater society to use lethal force, usually including use of weapons, in defending its country by combating actual or perceived threats. The military may have additional functions of use to its greater society, such as advancing a political agenda e.g...
and government agencies frequently employ initialisms (and occasionally, acronyms); some well-known examples from the United States are among the "
alphabet agenciesIn total, at least 100 offices were created during Roosevelt's terms of office as part of the New Deal, and "even the Comptroller-General of the United States, who audits the government's accounts, declared he had never heard of some of them." While previously all monetary appropriations had been...
" created by
Franklin D. RooseveltFranklin Delano Roosevelt , also known by his initials, FDR, was the 32nd President of the United States and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...
under the
New DealThe New Deal was a series of economic programs implemented in the United States between 1933 and 1936. They were passed by the U.S. Congress during the first term of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The programs were Roosevelt's responses to the Great Depression, and focused on what historians call...
. Business and industry also are prolific coiners of acronyms and initialisms. The rapid advance of science and technology in recent centuries seems to be an underlying force driving the usage, as new inventions and concepts with multiword names create a demand for shorter, more manageable names. One representative example, from the U.S. Navy, is COMCRUDESPAC, which stands for commander, cruisers destroyers Pacific; it's also seen as "ComCruDesPac". "YABA-compatible" (where YABA stands for "yet another bloody acronym") is used to mean that a term's acronym can be pronounced but is not an offensive word (e.g., "When choosing a new name, be sure it is "YABA-compatible").
The use of initialisms has been further popularized with the emergence of Short Message Systems (SMS). To fit messages into the 160-Character limit of SMS, initialisms such as "GF" (girl friend), "LOL" (laughing out loud), and "DL" (download or down low) have been popularized into the mainstream. Although
prescriptivistIn linguistics, prescription denotes normative practices on such aspects of language use as spelling, grammar, pronunciation, and syntax. It includes judgments on what usages are socially proper and politically correct...
disdain for such neologism is fashionable, and can be useful when the goal is protecting message receivers from crypticness, it is scientifically groundless when couched as preserving the "purity" or "legitimacy" of language; this neologism is merely the latest instance of a perennial linguistic principle—the same one that in the 19th century prompted the aforementioned abbreviation of corporation names in places where space for writing was limited (e.g., ticker tape, newspaper
column inchA column inch is a measurement of the amount of content in published works that use multiple columns per page. A column inch is a unit of space one column wide by one inch high.-A newspaper page:...
es).
Aids to learning the expansion without leaving a document
The expansion is typically given at the first occurrence of the acronym within a given text, for the benefit of those readers who do not know what it stands for. The capitalization of the original term is independent of it being acronymized, being lowercase for a term such as frequently asked questions (FAQ) but uppercase for a proper name such as the United Nations (UN).
In addition to expansion at first use, some publications also have a key listing all acronyms or initialisms used therein and what their expansions are. This is a convenience to readers for two reasons. The first is that if they are not reading the entire publication sequentially (which is a common mode of reading), then they may encounter an acronym without having seen its expansion. Having a key at the start or end of the publication obviates skimming over the text searching for an earlier use to find the expansion. (This is especially important in the print medium, where no search utility is available.) The second reason for the key feature is its pedagogical value in educational works such as textbooks. It gives students a way to review the meanings of the acronyms introduced in a chapter after they have done the line-by-line reading, and also a way to quiz themselves on the meanings (by covering up the expansion column and recalling the expansions from memory, then checking their answers by uncovering.)
Expansion at first use and the abbreviation-key feature are aids to the reader that originated in the print era, and they are equally useful in print and online. In addition, the online medium offers yet more aids, such as
tooltipThe tooltip or infotip is a common graphical user interface element. It is used in conjunction with a cursor, usually a mouse pointer. The user hovers the cursor over an item, without clicking it, and a tooltip may appear—a small "hover box" with information about the item being hovered...
s and
hyperlinkIn computing, a hyperlink is a reference to data that the reader can directly follow, or that is followed automatically. A hyperlink points to a whole document or to a specific element within a document. Hypertext is text with hyperlinks...
s.
Jargon
Acronyms and initialisms often occur in
jargonJargon is terminology which is especially defined in relationship to a specific activity, profession, group, or event. The philosophe Condillac observed in 1782 that "Every science requires a special language because every science has its own ideas." As a rationalist member of the Enlightenment he...
. An initialism may have different meanings in different areas of industry, writing, and scholarship. The general reason for this is convenience and succinctness for specialists, although it has led some to obfuscate the meaning either intentionally, to deter those without such domain-specific knowledge, or unintentionally, by creating an initialism that already existed.
The medical literature has been struggling to control the proliferation of acronyms as their use has evolved from aiding communication to hindering it. This has become such a problem that it is even evaluated at the level of medical academies such as the American Academy of Dermatology.
As Mnemonics
Acronyms and initialisms are often taught as
mnemonicA mnemonic , or mnemonic device, is any learning technique that aids memory. To improve long term memory, mnemonic systems are used to make memorization easier. Commonly encountered mnemonics are often verbal, such as a very short poem or a special word used to help a person remember something,...
devices, for example in physics the colors of the visible spectrum are
ROY G. BIVROYGBIV is an acronym for the visible part of the electromagnetic light spectrum:* Red* Orange* Yellow* Green* Blue* Indigo* VioletA rainbow spans a continuous spectrum of colors; the distinct bands are an artifact of human color vision...
(red-orange-yellow-green-blue-indigo-violet). They are also used as mental checklists, for example in aviation:
GUMPSGUMPS is an acronym widely used by fixed wing aircraft pilots as a mental checklist to ensure nothing critical has been forgotten before landing...
, which is Gas-Undercarriage-Mixture-Propeller-Seatbelts. Other examples of mnemonic acronyms and initialisms include
CAN SLIMCAN SLIM refers to the seven-pronged mnemonic publicized by the American newspaper Investor's Business Daily, which claims to be a checklist of the characteristics performing stocks tend to share before their biggest gains...
, and
PAVPANICPAVPANIC is a mnemonic device used in remembering the parts of speech in the English language.The eight letters in PAVPANIC stand for*P Pronouns*A Adjectives*V Verbs*P Prepositions*A Adverbs*N Nouns...
.
Acronyms as legendary etymology
{{See also|Backronym}}
It is not uncommon for acronyms to be cited in a kind of
false etymologyFolk etymology is change in a word or phrase over time resulting from the replacement of an unfamiliar form by a more familiar one. Unanalyzable borrowings from foreign languages, like asparagus, or old compounds such as samblind which have lost their iconic motivation are...
, called a folk etymology, for a word. Such etymologies persist in popular culture but have no factual basis in
historical linguisticsHistorical linguistics is the study of language change. It has five main concerns:* to describe and account for observed changes in particular languages...
, and are examples of language-related
urban legendAn urban legend, urban myth, urban tale, or contemporary legend, is a form of modern folklore consisting of stories that may or may not have been believed by their tellers to be true...
s. For example,
copA police officer is a warranted employee of a police force...
is commonly cited as being derived, it is presumed, from "constable on patrol," posh from "port out, starboard home", and
golfGolf is a precision club and ball sport, in which competing players use many types of clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a golf course using the fewest number of strokes....
from "gentlemen only, ladies forbidden". Taboo words in particular commonly have such false etymologies:
shitShit is usually considered vulgar and profane in Modern English. As a noun it refers to fecal matter and as a verb it means to defecate or defecate in; in the plural it means diarrhea...
from "ship/store high in transit" or "special high-intensity training" and
fuck"Fuck" is an English word that is generally considered obscene which, in its most literal meaning, refers to the act of sexual intercourse. By extension it may be used to negatively characterize anything that can be dismissed, disdained, defiled, or destroyed."Fuck" can be used as a verb, adverb,...
from "for unlawful carnal knowledge", or "fornication under consent of the king".
Showing the ellipsis of letters
In English, abbreviations have traditionally been written with a
full stop/period/pointA full stop is the punctuation mark commonly placed at the end of sentences. In American English, the term used for this punctuation is period. In the 21st century, it is often also called a dot by young people...
in place of the deleted part to show the ellipsis of letters, although the
colonThe colon is a punctuation mark consisting of two equally sized dots centered on the same vertical line.-Usage:A colon informs the reader that what follows the mark proves, explains, or lists elements of what preceded the mark....
and
apostropheThe apostrophe is a punctuation mark, and sometimes a diacritic mark, in languages that use the Latin alphabet or certain other alphabets...
have also had this role. In the case of most acronyms and initialisms, each letter is an abbreviation of a separate word and, in theory, should get its own termination mark. Such punctuation is diminishing with the belief that the presence of all-capital letters is sufficient to indicate that the word is an abbreviation.
Ellipsis-is-understood style
Some influential
style guideA style guide or style manual is a set of standards for the writing and design of documents, either for general use or for a specific publication, organization or field...
s, such as that of the
BBCThe British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
, no longer require punctuation to show ellipsis; some even proscribe it. Larry Trask, American author of The
PenguinPenguin Books is a publisher founded in 1935 by Sir Allen Lane and V.K. Krishna Menon. Penguin revolutionised publishing in the 1930s through its high quality, inexpensive paperbacks, sold through Woolworths and other high street stores for sixpence. Penguin's success demonstrated that large...
Guide to Punctuation, states categorically that, in
British EnglishBritish English, or English , is the broad term used to distinguish the forms of the English language used in the United Kingdom from forms used elsewhere...
, "this tiresome and unnecessary practice is now obsolete", though some other sources are not so absolute in their pronouncements.
Pronunciation-dependent style
Nevertheless, some influential
style guideA style guide or style manual is a set of standards for the writing and design of documents, either for general use or for a specific publication, organization or field...
s, many of them
AmericanAmerican English is a set of dialects of the English language used mostly in the United States. Approximately two-thirds of the world's native speakers of English live in the United States....
, still require periods in certain instances. For example,
The New York TimesThe New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
’ guide recommends following each segment with a period when the letters are pronounced individually, as in
K.G.B.The KGB was the commonly used acronym for the . It was the national security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 until 1991, and was the premier internal security, intelligence, and secret police organization during that time.The State Security Agency of the Republic of Belarus currently uses the...
, but not when pronounced as a word, as in
NATO. The logic of this style is that the pronunciation is reflected graphically by the punctuation scheme.
Other conventions
When a multiple-letter abbreviation is formed from a single word, periods are in general not used, although they may be common in informal usage. TV, for example, may stand for a single word (television or transvestite, for instance), and is in general spelled without punctuation (except in the plural). Although PS stands for the single word postscript (or the Latin postscriptum), it is often spelled with periods (P.S.).
The
slashThe slash is a sign used as a punctuation mark and for various other purposes. It is now often called a forward slash , and many other alternative names.-History:...
('/', a.k.a. virgule) is sometimes used to show the ellipsis of letters, for instance in the initialisms N/A (not applicable, not available) and w/o (without).
Inconveniently long words used frequently in related contexts can be represented according to their letter count. For example, i18n abbreviates
internationalizationIn economics, internationalization has been viewed as a process of increasing involvement of enterprises in international markets, although there is no agreed definition of internationalization or international entrepreneurship...
, a computer-science term for adapting software for worldwide use. The 18 represents the 18 letters that come between the first and the last in internationalization. Localization can be abbreviated l10n, multilingualization m17n, and
accessibilityAccessibility is a general term used to describe the degree to which a product, device, service, or environment is available to as many people as possible. Accessibility can be viewed as the "ability to access" and benefit from some system or entity...
a11y. In addition to the use of a specific number replacing that amount of letters, the more general "x" can be used to replace an unspecified number of letters (e.g., Crxn for crystallization).
Representing plurals and possessives
The traditional style of pluralizing single letters with the addition of ’s (for example, B’s come after A’s) was extended to some of the earliest initialisms, which tended to be written with periods to indicate the omission of letters; some writers still pluralize initialisms in this way. Some style guides continue to require such apostrophes{{ndash}} perhaps partly to make it clear that the lower case s is only for pluralization and would not appear in the singular form of the word, for some acronyms and abbreviations do include lowercase letters.
However, it has become common among many writers to
inflectIn grammar, inflection or inflexion is the modification of a word to express different grammatical categories such as tense, grammatical mood, grammatical voice, aspect, person, number, gender and case...
initialisms as ordinary words, using simple s, without an apostrophe, for the plural. In this case, compact discs becomes CDs. The logic here is that the apostrophe should be restricted to possessives: for example, the CD's label (the label of the compact disc).
Multiple options arise when initialisms are spelled with periods and are pluralized: for example, whether compact discs may become C.D.'s, C.D.s, or CDs. Possessive plurals that also include apostrophes for mere pluralization and periods appear especially complex: for example, the C.D.’s’ labels (the labels of the compact discs). This is yet another reason to use apostrophes only for possessives and not for plurals. In some instances, however, an apostrophe may increase clarity: for example, if the final letter of an abbreviation is S, as in SOS's, or when pluralizing an abbreviation that has periods. (In The New York Times, the plural possessive of G.I., which the newspaper prints with periods in reference to
United States ArmyThe United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
soldiers, is G.I.'s, with no apostrophe after the s.)
A particularly rich source of options arises when the plural of an initialism would normally be indicated in a word other than the final word if spelled out in full. A classic example is Member of Parliament, which in plural is Members of Parliament. It is possible then to abbreviate this as M's P. (or similar), as famously used by a former Australian Prime Minister.{{Citation needed|date=December 2008}} This usage is less common than forms with s at the end, such as MPs, and may appear dated or pedantic. In common usage, therefore, weapons of mass destruction becomes WMDs, prisoners of war becomes POWs, and runs batted in becomes RBIs.
The argument that initialisms should have no different plural form (for example, "If D can stand for disc, it can also stand for discs") is in general disregarded because of the practicality in distinguishing singulars and plurals. This is not the case, however, when the abbreviation is understood to describe a plural noun already: For example, U.S. is short for United States, but not United State. In this case, the options for making a possessive form of an abbreviation that is already in its plural form without a final s may seem awkward: for example, U.S.’, U.S.'s, etc. In such instances, possessive abbreviations are often foregone in favor of simple
attributiveIn grammar, an adjective is a 'describing' word; the main syntactic role of which is to qualify a noun or noun phrase, giving more information about the object signified....
usage (for example, the U.S. economy) or expanding the abbreviation to its full form and then making the possessive (for example, the United States’ economy). On the other hand, in speech, the pronunciation United States's sometimes is used.
Abbreviations that come from single, rather than multiple, words{{ndash}} such as TV (television){{ndash}} are pluralized without apostrophes: the apostrophe should be reserved for the possessive (TVs).
{{anchor|pp|PP|pP|Pp|page|pages}}In some languages, the convention of doubling the letters in the initialism is used to indicate plural words: for example, the Spanish EE. UU., for Estados Unidos (United States). This old convention is still followed for a limited number of English abbreviations, such as SS. for Saints, pp. for pages (although this is actually derived from the Latin abbreviation for paginae{{Citation needed|date=February 2009}}) or MSS for manuscripts.
Acronyms that are now always rendered in the lower case are pluralized as regular English nouns: for example, lasers.
When an initialism is part of a function in computing that is conventionally written in lower case, it is common to use an
apostropheThe apostrophe is a punctuation mark, and sometimes a diacritic mark, in languages that use the Latin alphabet or certain other alphabets...
to pluralize or otherwise conjugate the token. This practice results in such sentences like "Be sure to remove extraneous
.dllDynamic-link library , or DLL, is Microsoft's implementation of the shared library concept in the Microsoft Windows and OS/2 operating systems...
's" (more than one .dll). However, despite the pervasiveness of this practice, it is generally held to be incorrect; the preferred method being to simply append an s, without the apostrophe.
In computer
lingoSpeech community is a group of people who share a set of norms and expectations regarding the use of language. Speech communities can be members of a profession with a specialized jargon, distinct social groups like high school students or hip hop fans , or even tight-knit groups like families and...
, it is common to use the name of a computer program, format, or function, acronym or not, as a verb. In such verbification of abbreviations, there is confusion about how to conjugate: for example, if the verb IM means to send (someone) an instant message, the past tense may be rendered IM’ed, IMed, IM’d, or IMd{{ndash}} and the third-person singular present indicative may be IM's or IMs.
All-caps style
The most common
capitalizationCapitalization is writing a word with its first letter as a majuscule and the remaining letters in minuscules . This of course only applies to those writing systems which have a case distinction...
scheme seen with acronyms and initialisms is all-uppercase (
all-capsIn typography, all caps refers to text or a font in which all letters are capital letters. All caps is usually used for emphasis. It is commonly seen in the titles on book covers, in advertisements and in newspaper headlines...
), except for those few that have linguistically taken on an identity as regular words, with the acronymous etymology of the words fading into the background of common knowledge, such as has occurred with the words
scubaA scuba set is an independent breathing set that provides a scuba diver with the breathing gas necessary to breathe underwater during scuba diving. It is much used for sport diving and some sorts of work diving....
,
laserA laser is a device that emits light through a process of optical amplification based on the stimulated emission of photons. The term "laser" originated as an acronym for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation...
, and
radarRadar is an object-detection system which uses radio waves to determine the range, altitude, direction, or speed of objects. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, weather formations, and terrain. The radar dish or antenna transmits pulses of radio...
— these are known as anacronyms (a portmanteau with
anachronismAn anachronism—from the Greek ανά and χρόνος — is an inconsistency in some chronological arrangement, especially a chronological misplacing of persons, events, objects, or customs in regard to each other...
).{{citation needed|date=March 2011}}
Small-caps variant
Small capsIn typography, small capitals are uppercase characters set at the same height and weight as surrounding lowercase letters or text figures...
are sometimes used to make the run of capital letters seem less jarring to the reader. For example, the style of some American publications, including the Atlantic Monthly and
USA TodayUSA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...
, is to use small caps for acronyms and initialisms longer than three letters{{Citation needed|date=August 2007}}; thus "U.S." and "
FDRFranklin Delano Roosevelt , also known by his initials, FDR, was the 32nd President of the United States and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...
" in normal caps, but "{{sc||NATO}}" in small caps. The initialisms "
{{sc and Before Christ are designations used to label or number years used with the Julian and Gregorian calendars....
" and "{{sc" are often smallcapped as well, as in: "From 4004 {{sc|wrap=no||BC}} to {{sc|wrap=no||AD}} 525."
Pronunciation-dependent style
At the
copyeditingCopy editing is the work that an editor does to improve the formatting, style, and accuracy of text. Unlike general editing, copy editing might not involve changing the substance of the text. Copy refers to written or typewritten text for typesetting, printing, or publication...
end of the publishing industry, where the aforementioned distinction between acronyms and initialisms is usually maintained, some publishers choose to use cap/lowercase (c/lc) styling for acronyms, reserving all-caps styling for initialisms. Thus Nato and Aids (c/lc), but USA and FBI (caps). For example, this is the style used in
The GuardianThe Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
, and
BBC NewsBBC News is the department of the British Broadcasting Corporation responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs. The department is the world's largest broadcast news organisation and generates about 120 hours of radio and television output each day, as well as online...
typically edits to this style (though its official style guide, dating from 2003, still recommends all-caps ). The logic of this style is that the pronunciation is reflected graphically by the capitalization scheme.
Some style manuals also base the letters'
caseIn orthography and typography, letter case is the distinction between the larger majuscule and smaller minuscule letters...
on their number. The New York Times, for example, keeps NATO in all capitals (while several guides in the British press may render it Nato), but uses lower case in
UnicefUnited Nations Children's Fund was created by the United Nations General Assembly on December 11, 1946, to provide emergency food and healthcare to children in countries that had been devastated by World War II...
(from "United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund") because it is more than four letters, and to style it in caps might look ungainly (flirting with the appearance of "shouting capitals").
Numerals and constituent words
While abbreviations typically exclude the initials of short
function wordFunction words are words that have little lexical meaning or have ambiguous meaning, but instead serve to express grammatical relationships with other words within a sentence, or specify the attitude or mood of the speaker...
s (such as "and", "or", "of", or "to"), they are sometimes included in acronyms to make them pronounceable. Sometimes the letters representing these words are written in lower case, such as in the cases of TfL (
Transport for LondonTransport for London is the local government body responsible for most aspects of the transport system in Greater London in England. Its role is to implement the transport strategy and to manage transport services across London...
) and LotR (Lord of the Rings). This usually occurs when the acronym represents a multi-word proper noun.
Numbers (both
cardinalIn mathematics, cardinal numbers, or cardinals for short, are a generalization of the natural numbers used to measure the cardinality of sets. The cardinality of a finite set is a natural number – the number of elements in the set. The transfinite cardinal numbers describe the sizes of infinite...
and
ordinalIn set theory, an ordinal number, or just ordinal, is the order type of a well-ordered set. They are usually identified with hereditarily transitive sets. Ordinals are an extension of the natural numbers different from integers and from cardinals...
) in names are often represented by
digitA digit is a symbol used in combinations to represent numbers in positional numeral systems. The name "digit" comes from the fact that the 10 digits of the hands correspond to the 10 symbols of the common base 10 number system, i.e...
s rather than initial letters: as in 4GL (Fourth generation language) or G77 (
Group of 77The Group of 77 at the United Nations is a loose coalition of developing nations, designed to promote its members' collective economic interests and create an enhanced joint negotiating capacity in the United Nations. There were 77 founding members of the organization, but the organization has...
). Large numbers may use metric prefixes, as with Y2K for "Year 2000" (sometimes written Y2k, because the SI symbol for 1000 is k - not K, which stands for
kelvinThe kelvin is a unit of measurement for temperature. It is one of the seven base units in the International System of Units and is assigned the unit symbol K. The Kelvin scale is an absolute, thermodynamic temperature scale using as its null point absolute zero, the temperature at which all...
). Exceptions using initials for numbers include TLA (three-letter acronym/abbreviation) and GoF (Gang of Four). Abbreviations using numbers for other purposes include repetitions, such as W3C ("World Wide Web Consortium"); pronunciation, such as
B2BBusiness-to-business describes commerce transactions between businesses, such as between a manufacturer and a wholesaler, or between a wholesaler and a retailer...
("business to business"); and
numeronymA numeronym is a number-based word.Most commonly, a numeronym is a word where a number is used to form an abbreviation . Pronouncing the letters and numbers may sound similar to the full word: "K9" for "canine"...
s, such as i18n ("internationalization"; 18 represents the 18 letters between the initial i and the final n).
Pseudo-acronyms
In some cases, an acronym or initialism has been redefined as a non-acronymous name—creating a pseudo-acronym. The term "
orphan initialismOrphan initialism is the changing of the official name of a corporation, advocacy group or any organization to an acronym or initialism. Formed like any other acronym, the initial letters of the previous name are used. Such name changes are often connected to the continuous process of brand...
" has also been used for names that began as an acronym but lost this status. Such an apparent acronym or other abbreviation, that does not stand for anything cannot be expanded to some meaning. For example, the letters of the SAT college entrance test no longer officially stand for anything. This is common with companies that want to retain
brandThe American Marketing Association defines a brand as a "Name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller's good or service as distinct from those of other sellers."...
recognition while moving away from an outdated image: American Telephone and Telegraph became
AT&TAT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications corporation headquartered in Whitacre Tower, Dallas, Texas, United States. It is the largest provider of mobile telephony and fixed telephony in the United States, and is also a provider of broadband and subscription television services...
(its parent/child, SBC, followed suit prior to its acquisition of AT&T and after its acquisition of a number of the other Baby Bells, changing from Southwestern Bell Corporation), Kentucky Fried Chicken became
KFCKFC, founded and also known as Kentucky Fried Chicken, is a chain of fast food restaurants based in Louisville, Kentucky, in the United States. KFC has been a brand and operating segment, termed a concept of Yum! Brands since 1997 when that company was spun off from PepsiCo as Tricon Global...
to de-emphasize the role of frying in the preparation of its signature dishes,
British PetroleumBP p.l.c. is a global oil and gas company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the third-largest energy company and fourth-largest company in the world measured by revenues and one of the six oil and gas "supermajors"...
became
BPBP p.l.c. is a global oil and gas company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the third-largest energy company and fourth-largest company in the world measured by revenues and one of the six oil and gas "supermajors"...
to emphasize that it was no longer only an oil company (captured by its motto "beyond petroleum"), Silicon Graphics, Incorporated became SGI to emphasize that it was no longer only a computer graphics company.
DVDA DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
now has no official meaning: Its advocates could not agree on whether the initials stood for "Digital Video Disc" or "Digital Versatile Disc", and now both terms are used.
Pseudo-acronyms may have advantages in international markets: for example, some national
affiliateAn affiliate is a commercial entity with a relationship with a peer or a larger entity.- Corporate structure :A corporation may be referred to as an affiliate of another when it is related to it but not strictly controlled by it, as with a subsidiary relationship, or when it is desired to avoid...
s of International Business Machines are legally incorporated as "IBM" (or, for example, "IBM Canada") to avoid translating the full name into local languages. Likewise, "
UBSUBS AG is a Swiss global financial services company headquartered in Basel and Zürich, Switzerland, which provides investment banking, asset management, and wealth management services for private, corporate, and institutional clients worldwide, as well as retail clients in Switzerland...
" is the name of the merged
Union Bank of SwitzerlandUnion Bank of Switzerland was a large integrated financial services company located in Switzerland. The bank, which at the time was the second largest bank in Switzerland, merged with Swiss Bank Corporation in 1998, to become UBS to form what was then the largest bank in Europe and the second...
and
Swiss Bank CorporationSwiss Bank Corporation was a large integrated financial services company located in Switzerland...
, and "
HSBCHSBC Holdings plc is a global banking and financial services company headquartered in Canary Wharf, London, United Kingdom. it is the world's second-largest banking and financial services group and second-largest public company according to a composite measure by Forbes magazine...
" has replaced "The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation."
Recursive acronyms and RAS syndrome
{{Main|Recursive acronym|RAS syndrome}}
Rebranding can lead to
redundant-acronym syndrome syndromeRAS syndrome , also known as PNS syndrome or RAP phrases , refers to the use of one or more of the words that make up an acronym or initialism in conjunction with the abbreviated form, thus in effect repeating one or more words...
, as when
Trustee Savings BankThe Trustee Savings Bank was a British financial institution which specialised in accepting savings deposits from the poor. They did not trade their shares on the stock market and, unlike mutually held building societies, depositors had no voting rights nor the ability to direct the financial and...
became TSB Bank, or when
Railway Express AgencyThe Railway Express Agency was a the national monopoly set up by the Untied States federal government in 1917. Rail express services provided small package and parcel transportation using the extant railroad infrastructure much as UPS functions today using the road system...
became REA Express. A few high-tech companies have taken the redundant acronym to the extreme: for example, ISM Information Systems Management Corp. and SHL Systemhouse Ltd. An example in entertainment is the television show
CSI: Crime Scene InvestigationCSI: Crime Scene Investigation is an American crime drama television series, which premiered on CBS on October 6, 2000. The show was created by Anthony E. Zuiker and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer...
, where the redundancy was likely designed to educate new viewers as to what "CSI" stood for. The same stood for when the
Royal Bank of CanadaThe Royal Bank of Canada or RBC Financial Group is the largest financial institution in Canada, as measured by deposits, revenues, and market capitalization. The bank serves seventeen million clients and has 80,100 employees worldwide. The company corporate headquarters are located in Toronto,...
's Canadian operations rebranded to RBC Royal Bank, or when
Bank of MontrealThe Bank of Montreal , , or BMO Financial Group, is the fourth largest bank in Canada by deposits. The Bank of Montreal was founded on June 23, 1817 by John Richardson and eight merchants in a rented house in Montreal, Quebec. On May 19, 1817 the Articles of Association were adopted, making it...
rebranded their retail banking subsidiary BMO Bank of Montreal.
Another common example is
RAM-Animals:*Ram, an uncastrated male sheep*Ram cichlid, a species of freshwater fish endemic to Colombia and Venezuela-Military:*Battering ram*Ramming, a military tactic in which one vehicle runs into another...
memory, which is redundant because RAM (random-access memory) includes the initial of the word memory. PIN stands for personal identification number, obviating the second word in PIN number. Other examples include
ATMAn automated teller machine or automatic teller machine, also known as a Cashpoint , cash machine or sometimes a hole in the wall in British English, is a computerised telecommunications device that provides the clients of a financial institution with access to financial transactions in a public...
machine (automated teller machine machine), EAB bank (European American Bank bank),
DC ComicsDC Comics, Inc. is one of the largest and most successful companies operating in the market for American comic books and related media. It is the publishing unit of DC Entertainment a company of Warner Bros. Entertainment, which itself is owned by Time Warner...
(Detective Comics Comics),
HIVHuman immunodeficiency virus is a lentivirus that causes acquired immunodeficiency syndrome , a condition in humans in which progressive failure of the immune system allows life-threatening opportunistic infections and cancers to thrive...
virus (human immunodeficiency virus virus), Microsoft's NT Technology (New Technology Technology) and the formerly redundant
SATThe SAT Reasoning Test is a standardized test for college admissions in the United States. The SAT is owned, published, and developed by the College Board, a nonprofit organization in the United States. It was formerly developed, published, and scored by the Educational Testing Service which still...
test (Scholastic Achievement/Aptitude/Assessment Test test, now simply SAT Reasoning Test). TNN (The Nashville/National Network) also renamed itself The New TNN for a brief interlude.
Simple redefining
Sometimes, the initials continue to stand for an expanded meaning, but the original meaning is simply replaced. Some examples:
- CAF
The Commemorative Air Force , formerly known as the Confederate Air Force, is a Texas-based non-profit organization dedicated to preserving and showing historical aircraft at airshows primarily throughout the U.S. and Canada...
was Confederate Air Force, a ragtag collection of vintage warplanes that started in Odessa, Texas. It was changed to Commemorative Air ForceThe Commemorative Air Force , formerly known as the Confederate Air Force, is a Texas-based non-profit organization dedicated to preserving and showing historical aircraft at airshows primarily throughout the U.S. and Canada...
to better reflect its mission and avoid offense.
- DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
was originally an initialism of the unofficial term digital video disk, but is now stated by the DVD ForumThe DVD Forum is an international organization composed of hardware, software, media and content companies that use and develop the DVD and formerly HD DVD formats...
as standing for Digital Versatile Disc.
- GAO
Gao is a town in eastern Mali on the River Niger lying ESE of Timbuktu. Situated on the left bank of the river at the junction with the Tilemsi valley, it is the capital of the Gao Region and had a population of 86,663 in 2009....
changed the full form of its name from General Accounting Office to Government Accountability Office.
- The OCLC
OCLC Online Computer Library Center, Inc. is "a nonprofit, membership, computer library service and research organization dedicated to the public purposes of furthering access to the world’s information and reducing information costs"...
changed the full form of its name from Ohio College Library Center to Online Computer Library Center.
- RAID
RAID is a storage technology that combines multiple disk drive components into a logical unit...
used to mean Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks, but is now commonly interpreted as Redundant Array of Independent Disks.
- SADD changed the full form of its name from Students Against Driving Drunk to Students Against Destructive Decisions.
- WWF originally stood for World Wildlife Fund, but now stands for Worldwide Fund for Nature (although the former name is still used in the US).
Backronyms
{{Main|Backronym}}
A backronym (or bacronym) is a
phraseIn everyday speech, a phrase may refer to any group of words. In linguistics, a phrase is a group of words which form a constituent and so function as a single unit in the syntax of a sentence. A phrase is lower on the grammatical hierarchy than a clause....
that is constructed "after the fact" from a previously existing word. For example, the novelist and critic
Anthony BurgessJohn Burgess Wilson – who published under the pen name Anthony Burgess – was an English author, poet, playwright, composer, linguist, translator and critic. The dystopian satire A Clockwork Orange is Burgess's most famous novel, though he dismissed it as one of his lesser works...
once proposed that the word "book" ought to stand for "Box Of Organized Knowledge." A classic real-world example of this in action is the name of the predecessor to the Apple Macintosh, The
Apple LisaThe Apple Lisa—also known as the Lisa—is a :personal computer designed by Apple Computer, Inc. during the early 1980s....
, which was said to refer to "Local Integrated Software Architecture", but Steve Jobs' daughter, born 1978, was named Lisa.
Contrived acronyms
A contrived acronym is one deliberately designed to be especially apt for the thing being named (by having a dual meaning or by borrowing the positive connotations of an existing word).{{Citation needed|date=March 2009}} Some examples of contrived acronyms are
USA PATRIOTThe USA PATRIOT Act is an Act of the U.S. Congress that was signed into law by President George W. Bush on October 26, 2001...
, CAN SPAM,
CAPTCHAA CAPTCHA is a type of challenge-response test used in computing as an attempt to ensure that the response is generated by a person. The process usually involves one computer asking a user to complete a simple test which the computer is able to generate and grade...
and
ACT UPAIDS Coalition to Unleash Power is an international direct action advocacy group working to impact the lives of people with AIDS and the AIDS pandemic to bring about legislation, medical research and treatment and policies to ultimately bring an end to the disease by mitigating loss of health and...
. The clothing company
French ConnectionFrench Connection is a retailer and wholesaler of fashion clothing and accessories. Founded in 1972 by Stephen Marks it is based in London, is listed on the London Stock Exchange and operates globally....
began referring to itself as fcuk, standing for "French Connection United Kingdom." The company then created t-shirts and several advertising campaigns that exploit the acronym's similarity to the taboo word "
fuck"Fuck" is an English word that is generally considered obscene which, in its most literal meaning, refers to the act of sexual intercourse. By extension it may be used to negatively characterize anything that can be dismissed, disdained, defiled, or destroyed."Fuck" can be used as a verb, adverb,...
". See the
list of fictional espionage organizations for more examples of contrived acronyms.
The US Department of Defense's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is known for developing contrived acronyms to name projects, including RESURRECT, NIRVANA, and DUDE. In July 2010, Wired Magazine reported that DARPA announced programs to "..transform biology from a descriptive to a predictive field of science" named BATMAN and ROBIN for Biochronicity and Temporal Mechanisms Arising in Nature and Robustness of Biologically-Inspired Networks, a reference to the
BatmanBatman is a fictional character created by the artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger. A comic book superhero, Batman first appeared in Detective Comics #27 , and since then has appeared primarily in publications by DC Comics...
and
RobinRobin is the name of several fictional characters appearing in comic books published by DC Comics, originally created by Bob Kane, Bill Finger and Jerry Robinson, as a junior counterpart to DC Comics superhero Batman...
Comic-book superheroes.
Some acronyms are chosen deliberately to avoid a name considered undesirable: For example,
Verliebt in BerlinVerliebt in Berlin is a Golden Rose-winning German telenovela, starring Alexandra Neldel, along with Mathis Künzler, Tim Sander, and Laura Osswald. It premiered on February 28, 2005, on Sat.1 in most of German-speaking Europe, with its final episode broadcast on October 12, 2007...
(ViB), a German
telenovelaA telenovela is a limited-run serial dramatic programming popular in Latin American, Portuguese, and Spanish television programming. The word combines tele, short for televisión or televisão , and novela, a Spanish or Portuguese word for "novel"...
, was first intended to be Alles nur aus Liebe (All for Love), but was changed to avoid the resultant acronym ANAL. Likewise, the Computer Literacy and Internet Technology qualification is known as CLaIT, rather than
CLITThe clitoris is a sexual organ that is present only in female mammals. In humans, the visible button-like portion is located near the anterior junction of the labia minora, above the opening of the urethra and vagina. Unlike the penis, which is homologous to the clitoris, the clitoris does not...
.{{Citation needed|date=March 2009}} In Canada, the
Canadian Conservative Reform Alliance (Party)The Canadian Alliance , formally the Canadian Reform Conservative Alliance , was a Canadian conservative political party that existed from 2000 to 2003. The party was the successor to the Reform Party of Canada and inherited its position as the Official Opposition in the House of Commons and held...
was quickly renamed to the Canadian Reform Conservative Alliance when its opponents pointed out that its initials spelled CCRAP (see
crapFeces, faeces, or fæces is a waste product from an animal's digestive tract expelled through the anus or cloaca during defecation.-Etymology:...
). (The satirical magazine
FrankFrank is a bi-weekly Canadian scandal or satirical magazine published since 1987 in Halifax, Nova Scotia.A separate publication in Ottawa, Ontario, of the same name was published from 1989 to 2004 and then revived from 2005 to 2008...
had proposed alternatives to CCRAP, namely SSHIT and NSDAP.) Two Irish Institutes of Technology (Galway and Tralee) chose different acronyms from other institutes when they were upgraded from Regional Technical colleges. Tralee RTC became the Institute of Technology Tralee (ITT), as opposed to Tralee Institute of Technology (TIT). Galway RTC became Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology (GMIT), as opposed to Galway Institute of Technology (GIT).
Team in TrainingTeam in Training, also known by the acronym TNT, is the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's endurance sports training program. The program provides training for a half marathon, marathon, triathlon, century bike ride, or a cross-country ski marathon...
is known as TNT and not TIT.
Technological Institute of Textile & SciencesThe Technological Institute of Textile and Sciences "TITS" , founded in 1943, offers engineering programs and postgraduate programs.The institute provides lectures by in-house and visiting faculty, expert lectures, discussions, seminars, project assignments and visits to industries and project...
is still known as TITS. The war on terror was originally referred to in early Bush speeches as "The War Against Terror" (TWAT), but this was swiftly changed.{{citation needed|date=October 2010}}
Contrived acronyms differ from
backronymA backronym or bacronym is a phrase constructed purposely, such that an acronym can be formed to a specific desired word. Backronyms may be invented with serious or humorous intent, or may be a type of false or folk etymology....
s in that they were originally conceived with the artificial expanded meaning, whereas backronyms are later-invented expansions.
Macronyms / Nested Acronyms
A macronym, or nested acronym, is an acronym in which one or more letters stand for acronyms themselves. {{Citation needed|date=March 2009}} A special type of macronym has letters that refer back to itself when expanded. These are called recursive acronyms. One of the earliest examples appears in The Hacker's Dictionary as MUNG, which stands for "MUNG Until No Good"
Some examples of recursive acronyms are:
- GNU
GNU is a Unix-like computer operating system developed by the GNU project, ultimately aiming to be a "complete Unix-compatible software system"...
stands for "GNU's Not Unix"
- LAME
LAME is a free software codec used to encode/compress audio into the lossy MP3 file format.-History:The name LAME is a recursive acronym for "LAME Ain't an MP3 Encoder". Around mid-1998, Mike Cheng created LAME 1.0 as a set of modifications against the "8Hz-MP3" encoder source code...
stands for "LAME Ain't an MP3 Encoder"
- PHP
PHP is a general-purpose server-side scripting language originally designed for web development to produce dynamic web pages. For this purpose, PHP code is embedded into the HTML source document and interpreted by a web server with a PHP processor module, which generates the web page document...
stands for "PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor"
- WINE
Wine is a free software application that aims to allow computer programs written for Microsoft Windows to run on Unix-like operating systems. Wine also provides a software library, known as Winelib, against which developers can compile Windows applications to help port them to Unix-like...
stands for "WINE Is Not an Emulator"
Non-recursive macronyms:
- POWER
POWER is a reduced instruction set computer instruction set architecture developed by IBM. The name is an acronym for Performance Optimization With Enhanced RISC....
stands for "Performance Optimization With Enhanced RISC", in which (RISC stands for Reduced Instruction Set Computing)
- VHDL stands for "VHSIC Hardware Description Language", in which (VHSIC
VHSIC was a 1980s U.S. government program to develop very-high-speed integrated circuits.The United States Department of Defense launched the VHSIC project in 1980 as a joint tri-service project. The project led to advances in integrated circuit materials, lithography, packaging, testing, and...
stands for Very High Speed Integrated Circuit.) (This example is not a recursive acronym)
- XSD stands for "XML Schema Definition", in which (XML
Extensible Markup Language is a set of rules for encoding documents in machine-readable form. It is defined in the XML 1.0 Specification produced by the W3C, and several other related specifications, all gratis open standards....
stands for eXtensible Markup Language.)
- SECS stands for "SEMI equipment communication standard", in which SEMI
Semi- is a Latin prefix to a verb, noun, or adjective meaning "half". Some compounds formed with it are often abbreviated to simply "semi" in appropriate contexts:...
stands for "Semiconductor equipment manufacturing industries".
- AIM
AOL Instant Messenger is an instant messaging and presence computer program which uses the proprietary OSCAR instant messaging protocol and the TOC protocol to allow registered users to communicate in real time. It was released by AOL in May 1997...
stands for "AOL Instant Messenger", in which AOLAOL Inc. is an American global Internet services and media company. AOL is headquartered at 770 Broadway in New York. Founded in 1983 as Control Video Corporation, it has franchised its services to companies in several nations around the world or set up international versions of its services...
stands for America Online.
Some non-recursive macronyms can be multiply nested—the second order acronym points to another one further down a hierarchy. In an informal competition run by the magazine
New ScientistNew Scientist is a weekly non-peer-reviewed English-language international science magazine, which since 1996 has also run a website, covering recent developments in science and technology for a general audience. Founded in 1956, it is published by Reed Business Information Ltd, a subsidiary of...
, a fully documented specimen was discovered that may be the most deeply nested of all:
RARSRARS is an acronym for Robot Auto Racing Simulator. It is an open source 3D racing simulator. RARS is designed to enabled pre-programmed AI drivers to race against one another. RARS was used as the base for TORCS. It was used as an example in the book Intelligent Information Processing and Web...
is the "Regional ATOVS Retransmission Service", ATOVS is Advanced TOVS, TOVS is
TIROSTIROS, or Television Infrared Observation Satellite, is a series of early weather satellites launched by NASA, beginning with TIROS-1 in 1960. TIROS was the first satellite that was capable of remote sensing of the Earth. This initial remote-sensing effort was significant because it enabled Earth...
operational vertical sounder and TIROS is Television infrared observational satellite.
Chinese
In English language discussion of languages with
syllabicA syllabary is a set of written symbols that represent syllables, which make up words. In a syllabary, there is no systematic similarity between the symbols which represent syllables with the same consonant or vowel...
or logographic writing systems (such as
ChineseThe Chinese language is a language or language family consisting of varieties which are mutually intelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the branches of Sino-Tibetan family of languages...
,
Japaneseis a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...
, and
KoreanKorean is the official language of the country Korea, in both South and North. It is also one of the two official languages in the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture in People's Republic of China. There are about 78 million Korean speakers worldwide. In the 15th century, a national writing...
), acronym describes short forms that take selected characters from a multi-character word.
For example, in Chinese, the word "大學"/"大学" ("
universityA university is an institution of higher education and research, which grants academic degrees in a variety of subjects. A university is an organisation that provides both undergraduate education and postgraduate education...
" in traditional/simplified Chinese, literally "big educate"), when used with the name of the university, is usually abbreviated as "大" *"big"). So "北京大学" (Beijing University ("北京" = "Beijing", literally "north capital")) is commonly abbreviated to "北大" (literally "north big"). In this case, the first characters "北" and "大" from "北京" and "大学" are taken to compose the short form. In some cases, however, other characters than the first can be selected. For example, the local short form of "香港大學" (Hong Kong University, "香港" = "Hong Kong") is "港大" rather than "香大". There are also cases where some longer phrases are abbreviated drastically. For instance, the word "全国人民代表大会" (
National People's CongressThe National People's Congress , abbreviated NPC , is the highest state body and the only legislative house in the People's Republic of China. The National People's Congress is held in the Great Hall of the People, Beijing, capital of the People's Republic of China; with 2,987 members, it is the...
) can be broken into four parts: "全国" = "the whole nation", "人民" = "people", "代表" = "representatives", "大会" = "conference". Yet, in its short form "人大" (literally "man/people big"), only the first characters from the second and the fourth parts are selected; the first part ("全国") and the third part ("代表") are simply ignored. In describing such abbreviations, the term initialism is inapplicable.
Indonesian
{{see also|List of Indonesian acronyms and abbreviations}}
There is also a widespread use of acronyms and initialisms in
IndonesiaIndonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
in every aspect of social life. For example, the
GolkarThe Party of the Functional Groups is a political party in Indonesia. It is also known as Sekber Golkar . It was the ruling party during Suharto's regime...
political party stands for Partai Golongan Karya, Monas stands for "Monumen Nasional" (National Monument), the Angkot public transport stands for "Angkutan Kota" (city public transportation), warnet stands for "warung internet" (
internet cafeAn Internet café or cybercafé is a place which provides internet access to the public, usually for a fee. These businesses usually provide snacks and drinks, hence the café in the name...
), and many others. Some acronyms are considered formal (or officially adopted), while many more are considered informal,
slangSlang is the use of informal words and expressions that are not considered standard in the speaker's language or dialect but are considered more acceptable when used socially. Slang is often to be found in areas of the lexicon that refer to things considered taboo...
or colloquial.
The capital metropolitan (
JakartaJakarta is the capital and largest city of Indonesia. Officially known as the Special Capital Territory of Jakarta, it is located on the northwest coast of Java, has an area of , and a population of 9,580,000. Jakarta is the country's economic, cultural and political centre...
and its surrounding satellite regions), Jabodetabek, is another infamous acronym. Jabodetabek stands for Jakarta-Bogor-Depok-Tangerang-Bekasi. Many highways are also named by acronym and initialism method; e.g. Jalan Tol (Toll Road) Jagorawi (Jakarta-Bogor-Ciawi) and Purbaleunyi (Purwakarta-Bandung-Cileunyi), Joglo Semar (Jogja-solo-semarang).
In some languages, especially those that use certain alphabets, many acronyms and initialisms come from the military. The Indonesian military (TNI-Tentara Nasional Indonesia) and Indonesian police (POLRI-Kepolisian Republik Indonesia) are infamous for heavy acronyms use. Examples include the
KopassusKopassus is an Indonesian Army special forces group that conducts special operations missions for the Indonesian government, such as direct action, unconventional warfare, sabotage, counter-insurgency, counter-terrorism, and intelligence gathering.Kopassus was founded on April 16, 1952...
(Komando Pasukan Khusus;
Special ForcesSpecial forces, or special operations forces are terms used to describe elite military tactical teams trained to perform high-risk dangerous missions that conventional units cannot perform...
Command),
KopaskaKopaska or Komando Pasukan Katak is the premier frogman and underwater demolition unit of the Indonesian Navy. The Unit's motto is 'Tan Hana Wighna Tan Sirna', which means 'There is no obstacle that can not be defeated'. It was officially established on March 31, 1962 by President Sukarno to help...
(Komando Pasukan Katak; Frogmen Command), Kodim (Komando Distrik Militer; Military District Command - one of Indonesian army administrative divisions), Serka (Sersan Kepala; Head
SergeantSergeant is a rank used in some form by most militaries, police forces, and other uniformed organizations around the world. Its origins are the Latin serviens, "one who serves", through the French term Sergent....
), Akmil (Akademi Militer; Military Academy - in
MagelangMagelang is one of the largest cities of the 1,130 km² Magelang Regency, Central Java, Indonesia. It is also the largest town in the Kedu Plain between Mount Merbabu and Mount Sumbing in Central Java, Indonesia...
) and many other terms regarding ranks, units, divisions, procedures, etc.
Heavy acronym and initialism use by Indonesians, makes it difficult for foreigners and learners of
Bahasa IndonesiaIndonesian is the official language of Indonesia. Indonesian is a normative form of the Riau Islands dialect of Malay, an Austronesian language which has been used as a lingua franca in the Indonesian archipelago for centuries....
to seek information and news in Indonesian
mediaIn communications, media are the storage and transmission channels or tools used to store and deliver information or data...
.
German
German tends toward acronyms that use syllables rather than letters—such as
GestapoThe Gestapo was the official secret police of Nazi Germany. Beginning on 20 April 1934, it was under the administration of the SS leader Heinrich Himmler in his position as Chief of German Police...
rather than GSP (for Geheime Staatspolizei, secret state police); Flak rather than FAK (for Fliegerabwehrkanone,
anti-aircraftNATO defines air defence as "all measures designed to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of hostile air action." They include ground and air based weapon systems, associated sensor systems, command and control arrangements and passive measures. It may be to protect naval, ground and air forces...
gun); Kripo rather than KP (for
Kriminalpolizeiis the standard term for the criminal investigation agency within the police forces of Germany, Austria and the German-speaking cantons of Switzerland. In Nazi Germany during 1936, the Kripo became the Criminal Police Department for the entire Reich...
, detective division police). The extension of such contraction to a pervasive or whimsical degree has been mockingly labeled AbKüFi (for Abkürzfimmel, strange habit of abbreviating). Examples of AbKüFi include Vokuhila (for vorne kurz, hinten lang, short in the front, long in the back, i.e., a
mulletThe mullet is a hairstyle that is short at the front and sides, and long in the back. . The mullet began to appear in popular media in the 1960s and 1970s but did not become generally well-known until the early 1980s...
).
Hebrew
{{Main|Hebrew acronyms}}
It is common to take more than just one initial letter from each of the words composing the acronym; regardless of this, the abbreviation sign
gershayimGershayim , also occasionally grashayim , names two distinct typographical marks in the Hebrew language. The name literally means "double geresh".-Punctuation mark:...
is always written between the second-last and last letters of the non-inflected form of the acronym, even if by this it separates letters of the same original word. Examples: ארה״ב (for ארצות הברית, the United States); ברה״מ (for ברית המועצות, the Soviet Union); ראשל״צ (for ראשון לציון,
Rishon LeZion); ביה״ס (for בית הספר, the school). An example that takes only the initial letters from its component words is צה״ל ("Tzahal", for {{lang|he|צבא הגנה לישראל}},
Israel Defense ForcesThe Israel Defense Forces , commonly known in Israel by the Hebrew acronym Tzahal , are the military forces of the State of Israel. They consist of the ground forces, air force and navy. It is the sole military wing of the Israeli security forces, and has no civilian jurisdiction within Israel...
). In inflected forms the abbreviation sign
gershayimGershayim , also occasionally grashayim , names two distinct typographical marks in the Hebrew language. The name literally means "double geresh".-Punctuation mark:...
remains between the second-last and last letters of the non-inflected form of the acronym (e.g. "report", singular: "דו״ח", plural: "דו״חות"; "squad commander", masculine: "מ״כ", feminine: "מ״כית").
Swahili
In Swahili, acronyms are common for naming organizations such as TUKI, which stands for "Taasisi ya Uchunguzi wa Kiswahili" (the institute for Swahili research). Multiple initial letters (often the initial syllable of words) are often drawn together, as seen more in some languages than others.
Declension
In languages where nouns are
declinedIn linguistics, declension is the inflection of nouns, pronouns, adjectives, and articles to indicate number , case , and gender...
, various methods are used. An example is Finnish, where a colon is used to separate inflection from the letters:
- An acronym is pronounced as a word: Nato nato — Natoon [natoːn] "into Nato"
- An initialism is pronounced as letters: EU [eː uː] — EU:hun [eː uːhun] "into EU"
- An initialism is interpreted as words: EU [euroːpan unioni] — EU:iin [euroːpan unioniːn] "into EU"
The process above is similar to how, in English, hyphens are used for clarity when prefixes are added to acronyms, thus pre-NATO policy (rather than preNATO).
Lenition
In languages such as Scottish Gaelic and
IrishIrish , also known as Irish Gaelic, is a Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family, originating in Ireland and historically spoken by the Irish people. Irish is now spoken as a first language by a minority of Irish people, as well as being a second language of a larger proportion of...
, where
lenitionIn linguistics, lenition is a kind of sound change that alters consonants, making them "weaker" in some way. The word lenition itself means "softening" or "weakening" . Lenition can happen both synchronically and diachronically...
(initial consonant mutation) is commonplace, acronyms must also be modified in situations where case and context dictate it. In the case of Scottish Gaelic, a lower case "h" is added after the initial consonant; for example,
BBC ScotlandBBC Scotland is a constituent part of the British Broadcasting Corporation, the publicly-funded broadcaster of the United Kingdom. It is, in effect, the national broadcaster for Scotland, having a considerable amount of autonomy from the BBC's London headquarters, and is run by the BBC Trust, who...
in the genitive case would be written as BhBC Alba, with the acronym pronounced "VBC". Likewise, the Gaelic acronym for "television" (gd: telebhisean) is TBh, pronounced "TV", as in English.
Extremes
- The longest acronym, according to the 1965 edition of Acronyms, Initialisms and Abbreviations Dictionary, is ADCOMSUBORDCOMPHIBSPAC, a United States Navy
The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
term that stands for "Administrative Command, Amphibious Forces, Pacific Fleet Subordinate Command." Another term COMNAVSEACOMBATSYSENGSTA, which stands for "Commander, Naval Sea Systems Combat Engineering Station" is longer but the word "Combat" is not shortened.
- The world's longest initialism, according to the Guinness Book of World Records is NIIOMTPLABOPARMBETZHELBETRABSBOMONIMONKONOTDTEKHSTROMONT (Нииомтплабопармбетжелбетрабсбомонимонконотдтехстромонт). The 56-letter initialism (54 in Cyrillic) is from the Concise Dictionary of Soviet Terminology and means "The laboratory for shuttering, reinforcement, concrete and ferroconcrete operations for composite-monolithic and monolithic constructions of the Department of the Technology of Building-assembly operations of the Scientific Research Institute of the Organization for building mechanization and technical aid of the Academy of Building and Architecture of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics."
See also
- Acronyms in healthcare
The following is a partial list of acronyms commonly used in health care. The terms listed are used within the health care systems of various countries.- A :*A&E Accident and Emergency Department...
- Acronyms in the Philippines
Acronyms are popular in the Philippines.- Geography :Geography is one area prone to acronyms. Many times, when a group of places is formed, instead of coining a descriptive term for the group, an acronym that stands for the individual places is created...
- Acrostic
An acrostic is a poem or other form of writing in which the first letter, syllable or word of each line, paragraph or other recurring feature in the text spells out a word or a message. As a form of constrained writing, an acrostic can be used as a mnemonic device to aid memory retrieval. A famous...
- Amalgamation (names)
An amalgamated name is a name that is formed by combining several previously existing names. These may take the form of an acronym or a blend ....
- Backronym
A backronym or bacronym is a phrase constructed purposely, such that an acronym can be formed to a specific desired word. Backronyms may be invented with serious or humorous intent, or may be a type of false or folk etymology....
- Initialized sign
In sign language, an initialized sign is a word that is signed with a handshape that corresponds to the fingerspelling of the corresponding word in the locally dominant oral language, usually the initial letter of that word. In some cases, this is due to the local oral language having more than one...
- Internet slang
Internet slang is a type of slang that Internet users have popularized, and in many cases, have coined. Such terms often originate with the purpose of saving keystrokes. Many people use the same abbreviations in texting and instant messaging, and social networking websites...
- List of abbreviations
- List of abbreviations in photography
- List of acronyms and initialisms
- List of fictional espionage organizations
- List of Japanese Latin alphabetic abbreviations
- -onym
The suffix onym, in English and other languages, means "word, name," and words ending in onym refer to a specified kind of name or word, most of which are classical compounds. For example, an acronym is a word formed from the initial letter or letters of each of the successive parts or major parts...
- Portmanteau
- RAS syndrome
RAS syndrome , also known as PNS syndrome or RAP phrases , refers to the use of one or more of the words that make up an acronym or initialism in conjunction with the abbreviated form, thus in effect repeating one or more words...
(Redundant Acronym Syndrome syndrome)
- Recursive acronym
A recursive acronym is an acronym or initialism that refers to itself in the expression for which it stands...
- Syllabic abbreviation
- Three letter acronym
External links
{{Wiktionary|acronym|initialism|alphabetism}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Acronym And Initialism}}