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7679, 1047, bill, 16th, 10420, jeremy, butterfield, 966135, henry, ˈakrəˌnim, pattern, homonym, onoma, akron, 614990378, 539288, pearson, thesaurus, ˈækrənɪm, akruhnim, compare, synonym, corps, anzac, ˈakrənɪm, ˈækrəˌnɪm, compounding, lexical, turning, tea, taxed, enough, demonstrators, expected, attend, 750, rallies, protest, spending, 1976, hit, oracle, optional, reception, announcements, coded, iba, techn, rev, hutt, 1961, colidar, coherent, detecting, understand, 1950, 163, telescoped, potter, tomorrow, amer, rada, 104, tss, tout, sauf, 1985, scsd, construction, system, mod, movements, archit, jencks, 1975, puns, cia, spawned, disclosures, jet, ddd, cattle, rotarian, ddt, trips, pleasantly, byword, pearce, xlvii, 518, ger, gaz, tls, etymons, multipart, orth, tlantic, reaty, rganization, strict, distinguishing
Text of the page (random words):
hen pronounced letter by letter such as gdp or usa sources that differentiate the two often call the former acronyms and the latter initialisms 1 2 3 or alphabetisms however acronym is popularly used to refer to either concept 4 and both senses of the term are attributed as far back as the 1940s 5 dictionary and style guide editors dispute whether the term acronym can be legitimately applied to abbreviations which are not pronounced as words and there is no general agreement on standard acronym spacing casing and punctuation the phrase that the acronym stands for is called its expansion the meaning of an acronym includes both its expansion and the meaning of its expansion citation needed etymology edit the word acronym is formed from the greek roots akro meaning height summit or tip and nym name 6 7 this neoclassical compound appears to have originated in german with attestations for the german form akronym appearing as early as 1921 8 citations in english date to a 1940 translation of a novel by the german writer lion feuchtwanger 9 dispute over the scope of acronym edit english lexicography and style guides differ on whether acronym should apply only to abbreviations pronounced as ordinary words or also to letter by letter initialisms some authorities accept or record the broader sense others restrict acronym to word pronounced forms and prefer initialism or simply abbreviation for the rest among sources that acknowledge the broader sense attitudes range from neutral recording to prescriptive criticism a dictionaries edit some mainstream english dictionaries from across the english speaking world affirm a sense of acronym that does not require its pronunciation as a word american english dictionaries such as merriam webster 10 dictionary com s random house webster s unabridged dictionary 11 and the american heritage dictionary 12 as well as the british oxford english dictionary 13 and the australian macquarie dictionary 14 all include a sense in their entries for acronym equating it with initialism although the american heritage dictionary criticizes it with the label usage problem 12 however many english language dictionaries such as the collins cobuild advanced dictionary 15 cambridge advanced learner s dictionary 16 macmillan dictionary 17 longman dictionary of contemporary english 18 new oxford american dictionary 19 webster s new world dictionary 20 and lexico from oxford university press 21 do not acknowledge such a sense style and usage guides edit english language usage and style guides which have entries for acronym generally criticize the usage that refers to forms that are not pronounceable words fowler s dictionary of modern english usage says that acronym denotes abbreviations formed from initial letters of other words and pronounced as a single word such as nato as distinct from b b c but adds later in everyday use acronym is often applied to abbreviations that are technically initialisms since they are pronounced as separate letters 22 the chicago manual of style acknowledges the complexity furthermore an acronym and initialism are occasionally combined jpeg and the line between initialism and acronym is not always clear but still defines the terms as mutually exclusive 23 other guides outright deny any legitimacy to the usage bryson s dictionary of troublesome words says abbreviations that are not pronounced as words ibm abc nfl are not acronyms they are just abbreviations 24 garner s modern american usage says an acronym is made from the first letters or parts of a compound term it s read or spoken as a single word not letter by letter 25 the new york times manual of style and usage says unless pronounced as a word an abbreviation is not an acronym 26 in contrast some style guides do support it whether explicitly or implicitly the 1994 edition of merriam webster s dictionary of english usage defends the usage on the basis of a claim that dictionaries do not make a distinction 27 the buzzfeed style guide describes cbs and pbs as acronyms ending in s 28 historical development and early usage edit most of the dictionary entries and style guide recommendations regarding the term acronym in the twentieth century did not explicitly acknowledge or support the expansive sense the merriam webster s dictionary of english usage from 1994 is one of the earliest publications to advocate for the expansive sense 27 and all the major dictionary editions that include a sense of acronym equating it with initialism were first published in the twenty first century the trend among dictionary editors appears to be towards including a sense defining acronym as initialism the merriam webster s collegiate dictionary added such a sense in its 11th edition in 2003 29 30 and both the oxford english dictionary 31 13 and the american heritage dictionary 32 12 added such senses in their 2011 editions the 1989 edition of the oxford english dictionary only included the exclusive sense for acronym and its earliest citation was from 1943 31 in early december 2010 duke university researcher stephen goranson published a citation for acronym to the american dialect society e mail discussion list which refers to pgn being pronounced pee gee enn antedating english language usage of the word to 1940 33 linguist ben zimmer then mentioned this citation in his december 16 2010 on language column about acronyms in the new york times magazine 34 by 2011 the publication of the 3rd edition of the oxford english dictionary added the expansive sense to its entry for acronym and included the 1940 citation 13 as the oxford english dictionary structures the senses in order of chronological development 35 it now gives the initialism sense first examples edit main article lists of acronyms pronounced as letters abc american broadcasting company bbc british broadcasting corporation dvd digital video disc oem original equipment manufacturer vhf very high frequency pronounced as word initials only nato north atlantic treaty organization scuba self contained underwater breathing apparatus laser light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation gif graphics interchange format pronounced as word initials and non initials amphetamine alpha methyl phenethylamine gestapo german geheime staatspolizei secret state police radar radio detection and ranging lidar light detection and ranging pronounced as combination of word and letters cd rom cee dee r ɒ m compact disc read only memory iupac i u p æ k or i u pee a cee international union of pure and applied chemistry jpeg jay p ɛ ɡ or jay pee e gee joint photographic experts group sfmoma ess ef ˈ m oʊ m ə or ess ef em o em a san francisco museum of modern art pronounced as shortcut phrase of letters aaa triple a american automobile association abdominal aortic aneurysm anti aircraft artillery asistencia asesoría y administración three as amateur athletic association ieee i triple e institute of electrical and electronics engineers naacp n double a c p or n a a c p national association for the advancement of colored people ncaa n c double a or n c two a or n c a a national collegiate athletic association shortcut incorporated into spelling 3m three m originally minnesota mining and manufacturing company w3c w three c world wide web consortium a2dp a two d p advanced audio distribution profile i18n 18 stands in for the word s middle eighteen letters nternationalizatio internationalization c4istar c four istar command control communications computers intelligence surveillance target acquisition and reconnaissance 36 mnemonic memory aid kiss keep it simple stupid a design principle preferring simplicity smart specific measurable assignable realistic time related a principle of setting of goals and objectives fast facial drooping arm weakness speech difficulties time helps detect and enhance responsiveness to the needs of a person having a stroke dry don t repeat yourself a principle of software development aimed at reducing repetition of software patterns multi layered aim aol instant messenger in which aol originally stood for america online afta asean free trade area where asean stands for association of southeast asian nations gimp gnu image manipulation program recursive gnu gnu s not unix wine wine is not an emulator hurd hird of unix replacing daemons where hird stands for hurd of interfaces representing depth gramograms pseudo acronyms 37 cq cee cue for seek you a code used by radio operators iou i o u for i owe you k9 kay nine for canine used to designate police units using dogs ras syndrome phrases atm machine automated teller machine machine hiv virus human immunodeficiency virus virus lcd display liquid crystal display display pin number personal identification number number historical and current use edit this section needs more citations please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources unsourced material may be challenged and removed january 2015 learn how and when to remove this message acronymy like retronymy is a linguistic process that has existed throughout history but for which there was little to no naming conscious attention or systematic analysis until relatively recent times like retronymy it became much more common in the twentieth century than it had formerly been ancient examples of acronymy before the term acronym was invented include the following acronyms 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 senatus populusque romanus inscriptions dating from antiquity both on stone and on coins use many abbreviations and acronyms to save space and work for example roman first names of which there was only a small set were almost always abbreviated common terms were abbreviated too such as writing just f for filius meaning son a very common part of memorial inscriptions mentioning people grammatical markers were abbreviated or left out entirely if they could be inferred from the rest of the text so called nomina sacra sacred names were used in many greek biblical manuscripts the common words god θεός jesus ιησούς christ χριστός and some others would be abbreviated by their first and last letters marked with an overline this was just one of many kinds of conventional scribal abbreviation used to reduce the time consuming workload of the scribe and save on valuable writing materials the same convention is still commonly used in the inscriptions on religious icons and the stamps used to mark the eucharistic bread in eastern churches the early christians in rome used the image of a fish as a symbol for jesus in part because of an acronym or backronym fish in greek is ichthys ιχθυς which was construed to stand for ἰησοῦς χριστός θεοῦ υἱός σωτήρ iesous christos theou huios soter jesus christ god s son savior this interpretation dates from the second and third centuries and is preserved in the catacombs of rome another ancient acronym for jesus is the inscription inri over the crucifix for the latin iesus nazarenus rex iudaeorum jesus the nazarene king of the jews hebrew has a millennia long history of acronyms pronounced as words along with theophoric parallels to the greek described above talmudic sages as early as rabbi yehuda shorten the ten plagues to דצ ך עד ש באח ב the order of blessings to יקנה ז etc for the sake of mnemonic the rishonic period saw hebrew acronymy expand to a lexicon of many hundreds including every type of word and extending to proper nouns almost all medieval rabbis are known by acronyms like rashi and rambam during the mid to late nineteenth century acronyms became a trend among american and european businessmen abbreviating corporation names such as on the sides of railroad cars e g richmond fredericksburg and potomac railroad rf p on the sides of barrels and crates and newspaper stock listings e g american telephone and telegraph company at t some well known commercial examples dating from the 1890s through 1920s include nabisco national biscuit company 38 esso from s o from standard oil and sunoco sun oil company another field for the adoption of acronyms was modern warfare with its many highly technical terms while there is no recorded use of military acronyms dating from the american civil war acronyms such as anv for army of northern virginia post date the war itself they became somewhat common in world war i and by world war ii they were widespread even in the slang of soldiers 39 who referred to themselves as g i s the widespread frequent use of acronyms across the whole range of linguistic registers is relatively new in most languages becoming increasingly evident since the mid twentieth century as literacy spread and technology produced a constant stream of new and complex terms abbreviations became increasingly convenient the oxford english dictionary 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 in english acronyms pronounced as words may be a twentieth 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 40 41 however although acronymic words seem not to have been employed in general vocabulary before the twentieth century as wilton points out the concept of their formation is treated as effortlessly understood and evidently not novel in an edgar allan poe story of the 1830s how to write a blackwood article which includes the contrived acronym p r e t t y b l u e b a t c h early examples in english edit the use of latin and neo latin terms in vernaculars has been pan european and pre dates modern english some examples of acronyms in this class are a m from latin ante meridiem before noon and p m from latin post meridiem after noon a d from latin anno domini in the year of our lord whose complement in english b c before christ is english sourced the earliest example of a word derived from an acronym listed by the oed is abjud now abjad formed from the original first four letters of the arabic alphabet in the late eighteenth century 42 some acrostics pre date this however such as the restoration witticism arranging the names of some members of charles ii s committee for foreign affairs to produce the cabal ministry 43 ok a term of disputed origin dates back at least to the early nineteenth century and is now used around the world current use edit acronyms are used most often to abbreviate names of organizations and long or frequently referenced terms the armed forces and government agencies frequently employ acronyms some well known examp...
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