Acronym From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (Redirected from Acronyms) Jump to: navigation, search For the

use of acronyms on Wikipedia, see Wikipedia:Acronyms. An acronym is an abbreviation 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 Benelux and Ameslan). There is no universal agreement on the precise def inition of various names for such abbreviations (see nomenclature) nor on writte n usage (see orthographic styling). In English and most other languages, such ab breviations historically had limited use, but they became much more common in th e 20th century. Acronyms are a type of word formation process, and they are view ed as a subtype of blending. Contents 1 Nomenclature 2 Comparing a few examples of each type 3 Historical and current use 3.1 Early examples in English 3.2 Current use 3.2.1 Aids to learning the expansion without leaving a document 3.2.2 Jargon 3.2.3 As mnemonics 3.2.4 Acronyms as legendary etymology 4 Orthographic styling 4.1 Punctuation 4.1.1 Showing the ellipsis of letters 4.1.1.1 Ellipsis-is-understood style 4.1.1.2 Pronunciation-dependent style 4.1.1.3 Other conventions 4.1.2 Representing plurals and possessives 4.2 Case 4.2.1 All-caps style 4.2.1.1 Small-caps variant 4.2.2 Pronunciation-dependent style 4.3 Numerals and constituent words 5 Changes to (or word play on) the expanded meaning 5.1 Pseudo-acronyms 5.2 Redundant acronyms and RAS syndrome 5.3 Simple redefining 5.4 Backronyms 5.5 Contrived acronyms 5.6 Macronyms/nested acronyms 6 Non-English language 6.1 Asian languages 6.1.1 Chinese 6.1.2 Japanese 6.1.3 Indonesian 6.2 German 6.3 Hebrew 6.4 Swahili 6.5 Declension 6.6 Lenition 7 Extremes 8 See also 9 References 10 External links

Nomenclature The term acronym is the name for a word from the first letters of each word in a series of words (such as sonar, created from SOund Navigation And Ranging).[1] Attestations for "Akronym" in German are known from 1921, and for "acronym" in E nglish from 1940.[2]

Whilst an abbreviation is the shortened form of any initial, syllable or parts o f a phrase or words, an initialism (or less commonly, alphabetism) refers to an abbreviation formed from, and used simply as, a string of initials.[3] Although the term acronym is widely used to refer to any abbreviation formed from initial letters,[4] some dictionaries define acronym to mean "a word" in its original s ense,[5][6][7] while some others include additional senses attributing to acrony m the same meaning as that of initialism.[8][9][10][11] The distinction, when ma de, hinges on whether the abbreviation is pronounced as a word, or as a string o f letters. In such cases, examples found in dictionaries include NATO (/neto /), scu ba (/skub/), and radar (/redr/) for acronyms, and FBI (/ f bia/) and HTML (/ et t [9][12] In the rest of this Wikipedia article, this distinction is not made.

There is no agreement on what to call abbreviations whose pronunciation involves the combination of letter names and words, such as JPEG (/dep/) and MS-DOS (/ msds/

There is also some disagreement as to what to call abbreviations that some speak ers pronounce as letters and others pronounce as a word. For example, the terms URL and IRA can be pronounced as individual letters: / ju rl/ and / a re/, respective single word: /rl/ and /ar/, respectively. Such constructions, howeverregardless of ho they are pronouncedif formed from initials, may be identified as initialisms. The spelled-out form of an acronym or initialism (that is, what it stands for) i s called its expansion. Comparing a few examples of each type Pronounced as a word, containing only initial letters AIDS: acquired immune deficiency syndrome NATO: North Atlantic Treaty Organization Scuba: self-contained underwater breathing apparatus Laser: Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation Pronounced as a word, containing non-initial letters Amphetamine: alpha-methyl-phenethylamine Gestapo: Geheime Staatspolizei (secret state police) Interpol: International Criminal Police Organization Nabisco: National Biscuit Company Pronounced as a word, containing a mixture of initial and non-initial letter s Necco: New England Confectionery Company Radar: radio detection and ranging Pronounced as a word or as a string of letters, depending on speaker or cont ext FAQ: ([fk] or ef-a-cue) frequently asked question IRA: When used for Individual Retirement Account, can be pronounced as l etters (i-ar-a) or as a word [ar]. SAT(s): ([st] or ess-a-tee) (previously) Scholastic Achievement (or Aptit ude) Test(s)(US) or Standard Assessment Test(s) (UK), now claimed not to stand f or anything.[13] SQL: ([sikwl] or ess-cue-el) Structured Query Language. Pronounced as a combination of spelling out and a word

CD-ROM: (cee-dee-[rm]) Compact Disc read-only memory IUPAC: (i-u-[pk]) International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry JPEG: (jay-[p]) Joint Photographic Experts Group SFMOMA: (ess-ef-[mo m]) San Francisco Museum of Modern Art Pronounced only as a string of letters BBC: British Broadcasting Corporation OEM: Original Equipment Manufacturer USA: The United States of America Pronounced as a string of letters, but with a shortcut AAA: (triple A) American Automobile Association; abdominal aortic aneurys m; anti-aircraft artillery; Asistencia Asesora y Administracin (three As) Amateur Athletic Association IEEE: (I triple E) Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers NAACP: (N double A C P) National Association for the Advancement of Colo red People NCAA: (N C double A or N C two A or N C A A) National Collegiate Athleti c Association Shortcut incorporated into name 3M: (three M) originally Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company E3: (E three) Electronic Entertainment Exposition W3C: (W three C) World Wide Web Consortium C4ISTAR: (C four I star) Command, Control, Communications, Computers, In telligence, Surveillance, Target Acquisition, and Reconnaissance[14] Multi-layered acronyms NAC Breda: (Dutch football club) NOAD ADVENDO Combinatie ("NOAD ADVENDO Combination"), formed by the 1912 merger of two clubs, NOAD (Nooit Opgeven Altij d Doorgaan "Never give up, always persevere") and ADVENDO (Aangenaam Door Vermaa k En Nuttig Door Ontspanning "Pleasant by entertainment and useful by relaxation ") from Breda[15][16] GAIM (former name of Pidgin): GTK+ AOL Instant Messenger GIMP: GNU Image Manipulation Program VHDL: VHSIC hardware description language, where VHSIC stands for very-h igh-speed integrated circuit. Recursive acronyms, in which the abbreviation refers to itself GNU: GNU's not Unix! WINE: WINE Is Not an Emulator (originally, WINdows Emulator) PHP: PHP hypertext pre-processor (formerly personal home page) These may go through multiple layers before the self-reference is found: HURD: HIRD of Unix-replacing daemons, where "HIRD" stands for "HURD of interfaces representing depth" Pseudo-acronyms,[citation needed][original research?] which consist of a seq uence of characters that, when pronounced as intended, invoke other, longer word s with less typing (see also Internet slang) CQ: cee-cue for "seek you", a code used by radio operators IOU: i-o-u for "I owe you" (a true acronym would be IOY) K9: kay-nine for "canine", used to designate police units utilizing dogs Q8: cue-eight for "Kuwait" Acronyms whose last abbreviated word is often redundantly included anyway ATM machine: Automated Teller Machine machine HIV virus: Human Immunodeficiency Virus virus PIN number: Personal Identification Number number LCD display: Liquid Crystal Display display

Historical and current use Acronymy, like retronymy, is a linguistic process that has existed throughout hi story but for which there was little to no naming, conscious attention, or syste matic analysis until relatively recent times. Like retronymy, it became much mor e common in the 20th century than it had formerly been. Ancient examples of acronymy (regardless of whether there was metalanguage at th e time to describe it) include the following:

Acronyms were used in Rome before the Christian era. For example, the offici al name for the Roman Empire, and the Republic before it, was abbreviated as SPQ R (Senatus Populusque Romanus). Inscriptions dating from antiquity, both on ston e and on coins, use a lot of abbreviations and acronyms to save room and work. F or 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 of", a very common part of memorial inscriptions ment ioning people. Grammatical markers were abbreviated or left out entirely if they could be inferred from the rest of the text. So called Nomina Sacra were used in many Greek biblical manuscripts. The com mon words "God" (), "Jesus" (), "Christ" (), and some others, would be abbre and last letters, marked with an overline. This was just one of many kinds of c onventional 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, most of whom were Greek rather than Latin spea kers, used the image of a fish as a symbol for Jesus in part because of an acron ymfish in Greek is (ichthys), which was said to stand for , God's Son, Savior). Evidence of this interpretation dates from the 2nd and 3rd centuries and is preserved in the catacombs of Rome. And for centuries, the Chu rch 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 a s words, stretching back many centuries. The Hebrew Bible ("Old Testament") is k nown as "Tanakh", an acronym composed from the Hebrew initial letters of its thr ee 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 Maimo nides, 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 acronym-disseminating trend spread thro ugh the American and European business communities: abbreviating corporation nam es in places where space was limited for writing such as on the sides of railroa d cars (e.g., Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad RF&P); on the sides of barrels and crates; and on ticker tape and in the small-print newspaper stock listings that got their data from it (e.g., American Telephone and Telegraph Co mpany AT&T). Some well-known commercial examples dating from the 1890s through 1 920s include Nabisco (National Biscuit Company),[17] Esso (from S.O., from Stand ard Oil), and Sunoco (Sun Oil Company). Another driver for the adoption of acronyms was modern warfare with its many hig hly technical terms. While there is no recorded use of military acronyms in docu ments dating from the American Civil War (acronyms such as ANV for "Army of Nort hern Virginia" post-date the war itself), they had become somewhat common in Wor ld War I and were very much a part even of the vernacular language of the soldie rs during World War II.[18]

The widespread, frequent use of acronyms across the whole range of registers 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 s cience and technology brought with them a constant stream of new (and sometimes more complex) terms and concepts, the practice of abbreviating terms became incr easingly convenient. The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) records the first print ed use of the word initialism as occurring in 1899, but it did not come into gen eral use until 1965, well after acronym had become common.

By 1943, the term acronym had been used in English to recognize abbreviations (a nd contractions of phrases) that were pronounced as words.[17] (It was formed fr om the Greek words , akros, "topmost, extreme" and , onoma, "name.") For example, t offense of being absent without official leave was abbreviated to "A.W.O.L." in reports, but when pronounced as a word ('awol'), it became an acronym.[19] Whil e 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,[20] for ex ample UNIVAC from UNIVersal Automatic Computer.[21] In English, acronyms pronounced as words may be a 20th-century phenomenon. Lingu ist David Wilton in Word Myths: Debunking Linguistic Urban Legends claims that " forming words from acronyms is a distinctly twentieth- (and now twenty-first-) c entury 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 Expositio n held in London in that year."[22][23] However, although acronymic words seem n ot to have been employed in general vocabulary before the 20th century (as Wilto n points out), the concept of their formation is treated as effortlessly underst ood (and evidently not novel) in a Poe story of the 1830s, "How to Write a Black wood 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 The use of Latin and Neo-Latin terms in vernaculars has been pan-European an d predates 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 compleme nt in English, B.C. [Before Christ], is English-sourced) O.K., a term of disputed origin, dating back at least to the early 19th cent ury, now used around the world The etymology of the word alphabet itself comes to Middle English from the L ate Latin Alphabetum, which in turn derives from the Ancient Greek Alphabetos, f rom alpha and beta, the first two letters of the Greek alphabet.[24] In colloqui al terms, learning the alphabet is called learning one's ABCs. Since the letter names stand for themselves in these examples rather than being the initials of o ther words, these are not really acronyms. Current use Acronyms are used most often to abbreviate names of organizations and long or fr equently referenced terms. The armed forces and government agencies frequently e mploy acronyms; some well-known examples from the United States are among the "a lphabet agencies" (also jokingly referred to as "alphabet soup") created by Fran klin D. Roosevelt under the New Deal. Business and industry also are prolific co iners of acronyms. The rapid advance of science and technology in recent centuri es seems to be an underlying force driving the usage, as new inventions and conc epts with multiword names create a demand for shorter, more manageable names. On e representative example, from the U.S. Navy, is COMCRUDESPAC, which stands for commander, cruisers destroyers Pacific; it's also seen as "ComCruDesPac". "YABAcompatible" (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., "Wh en choosing a new name, be sure it is "YABA-compatible").[25] The use of acronyms has been further popularized with the emergence of Short Mes sage Systems (SMS). To fit messages into the 160-character limit of SMS, acronym s such as "GF" (girl friend), "LOL" (laughing out loud), and "DL" (download or d own low) have been popularized into the mainstream.[26] Although prescriptivist disdain for such neologism is fashionable, and can be useful when the goal is pr otecting message receivers from crypticness, it is scientifically groundless whe n couched as preserving the "purity" or "legitimacy" of language; this neologism is merely the latest instance of a perennial linguistic principlethe same one th at in the 19th century prompted the aforementioned abbreviation of corporation n ames in places where space for writing was limited (e.g., ticker tape, newspaper column inches). 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 upperc ase 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 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 enc ounter an acronym without having seen its expansion. Having a key at the start o r end of the publication obviates skimming over the text searching for an earlie r 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 mea nings (by covering up the expansion column and recalling the expansions from mem ory, then checking their answers by uncovering.) In addition, this feature enabl es readers possessing knowledge of the abbreviations not to have to encounter ex pansions (redundant to such readers). Expansion at first use and the abbreviation-key feature are aids to the reader t hat 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 tooltips, hyperli nks, and rapid search via search engine technology. Jargon Acronyms often occur in jargon. An acronym may have different meanings in differ ent areas of industry, writing, and scholarship. The general reason for this is convenience and succinctness for specialists, although it has led some to obfusc ate the meaning either intentionally, to deter those without such domain-specifi c knowledge, or unintentionally, by creating an acronym that already existed. The medical literature has been struggling to control the proliferation of acron yms 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 academi es such as the American Academy of Dermatology. [27] As mnemonics Acronyms are often taught as mnemonic devices, for example in physics the colors of the visible spectrum are ROY G. BIV (red-orange-yellow-green-blue-indigo-vio let). They are also used as mental checklists, for example in aviation: GUMPS, w hich is Gas-Undercarriage-Mixture-Propeller-Seatbelts. Other examples of mnemoni

c acronyms include CAN SLIM, and PAVPANIC. Acronyms as legendary etymology See also: Backronym It is not uncommon for acronyms to be cited in a kind of false etymology, called a folk etymology, for a word. Such etymologies persist in popular culture but h ave no factual basis in historical linguistics, and are examples of language-rel ated urban legends. For example, cop is commonly cited as being derived, it is p resumed, from "constable on patrol,"[28] posh from "port out, starboard home",[2 9] and golf from "gentlemen only, ladies forbidden".[29][30] Taboo words in part icular commonly have such false etymologies: shit from "ship/store high in trans it"[22][31] or "special high-intensity training" and fuck from "for unlawful car nal knowledge", or "fornication under consent/command of the king".[31] Orthographic styling Punctuation Showing the ellipsis of letters In English, abbreviations have traditionally been written with a full stop/perio d/point in place of the deleted part to show the ellipsis of letters, although t he colon and apostrophe have also had this role. In the case of most acronyms, e ach 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 p resence of all-capital letters is sufficient to indicate that the word is an abb reviation. Ellipsis-is-understood style Some influential style guides, such as that of the BBC, no longer require punctu ation to show ellipsis; some even proscribe it. Larry Trask, American author of The Penguin Guide to Punctuation, states categorically that, in British English, "this tiresome and unnecessary practice is now obsolete",[32] though some other sources are not so absolute in their pronouncements. Pronunciation-dependent style Nevertheless, some influential style guides, many of them American, still requir e periods in certain instances. For example, The New York Times guide recommends following each segment with a period when the letters are pronounced individuall y, as in K.G.B., but not when pronounced as a word, as in NATO.[33] The logic of this style is that the pronunciation is reflected graphically by the punctuatio n 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 exampl e, may stand for a single word (television or transvestite, for instance), and i s in general spelled without punctuation (except in the plural). Although PS sta nds for the single word postscript (or the Latin postscriptum), it is often spel led with periods (P.S.). The slash ('/', a.k.a. virgule) is sometimes used to show the ellipsis of letter s, for instance in the acronyms N/A (not applicable, not available), c/o (care o f) and w/o (without). Inconveniently long words used frequently in related contexts can be represented according to their letter count. For example, i18n abbreviates internationaliza tion, a computer-science term for adapting software for worldwide use. The 18 re presents the 18 letters that come between the first and the last in internationa lization. Localization can be abbreviated l10n, multilingualization m17n, and ac cessibility a11y. In addition to the use of a specific number replacing that amo unt of letters, the more general "x" can be used to replace an unspecified numbe r of letters (e.g., Crxn for crystallization).

Representing plurals and possessives Turabian[34] (Chicago) allows for an apostrophe "only when an abbreviation conta ins internal periods or both capital and lowercase letters". The MLA[35] is expl icit "do not use an apostrophe to form the plural of an abbreviation". The APA i s specific in[36][36] "without an apostrophe". The traditional style of pluralizing single letters with the addition of (for e xample, B come after A) was extended to some of the earliest acronyms, which ten ded to be written with periods to indicate the omission of letters; some writers still pluralize acronyms in this way. Some style guides continue to require suc h 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 ac ronyms and abbreviations do include lowercase letters.[citation needed] However, it has become common among many writers to inflect acronyms as ordinary words, using simple s, without an apostrophe, for the plural. In this case, com pact discs becomes CDs. The logic here is that the apostrophe should be restrict ed to possessives: for example, the CD's label (the label of the compact disc).[ 37] Multiple options arise when acronyms are spelled with periods and are pluralized : for example, whether compact discs may become C.D.'s, C.D.s, or CDs. Possessiv e plurals that also include apostrophes for mere pluralization and periods appea r especially complex: for example, the C.D. labels (the labels of the compact dis cs). 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 (although abb reviations ending with S can also take -es, e.g. SOSes), or when pluralizing an abbreviation that has periods.[38][39] (In The New York Times, the plural posses sive of G.I., which the newspaper prints with periods in reference to United Sta tes Army soldiers, is G.I.'s, with no apostrophe after the s.) A particularly rich source of options arises when the plural of an acronym would normally be indicated in a word other than the final word if spelled out in ful l. A classic example is Member of Parliament, which in plural is Members of Parl iament. It is possible then to abbreviate this as M's P.[40][41] (or similar[42] ), as used by former Australian Prime Minister Ben Chifley.[43][44][45] This usa ge is less common than forms with s at the end, such as MPs, and may appear date d or pedantic. In common usage, therefore, weapons of mass destruction becomes W MDs, prisoners of war becomes POWs, and runs batted in becomes RBIs generally if the abbreviation ends with a tensed back vowel syllable. The plural of RBI is " RBIs" because acronyms become bona fide words as language evolves, and as with o ther words attract a plural suffix at the end to be made plural, even if the fir st word is the main noun in the spelled-out form.[46][47][48][49] The argument that acronyms should have no different plural form (for example, "I f 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 nou n already: For example, U.S. is short for United States, but not United State. I n 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 attributive usage (for example, the U.S. economy) or expanding the abbreviation to its full form and then making the possessive (for example, t he 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 (tel

evision) are usually pluralized without apostrophes (two TVs); most writers feel that the apostrophe should be reserved for the possessive (the TV's antenna). In some languages, the convention of doubling the letters in the acronym 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 E nglish abbreviations, such as SS. for Saints, pp. for the Latin plural of pages, paginae, or MSS for manuscripts. Case All-caps style The most common capitalization scheme seen with acronyms is all-uppercase (all-c aps), except for those few that have linguistically taken on an identity as regu lar words, with the acronymous etymology of the words fading into the background of common knowledge, such as has occurred with the words scuba, laser, and rada r these are known as anacronyms.[50] Small-caps variant Small caps are sometimes used to make the run of capital letters seem less jarri ng to the reader. For example, the style of some American publications, includin g the Atlantic Monthly and USA Today, is to use small caps for acronyms longer t han three letters[citation needed]; thus "U.S." and "FDR" in normal caps, but "n ato" in small caps. The acronyms "AD" and "BC" are often smallcapped as well, as in: "From 4004 bc to ad 525". Pronunciation-dependent style At the copyediting end of the publishing industry, where the aforementioned dist inction between acronyms (pronounced as a word) and initialisms (pronounced as a series of letters) is usually maintained, some publishers choose to use cap/low ercase (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 styl e used in The Guardian,[51] and BBC News typically edits to this style (though i ts official style guide, dating from 2003, still recommends all-caps[52]). The l ogic of this style is that the pronunciation is reflected graphically by the cap italization scheme. Some style manuals also base the letters' case on their number. The New York Tim es, for example, keeps NATO in all capitals (while several guides in the British press may render it Nato), but uses lower case in Unicef (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 "sh outing capitals"). Numerals and constituent words While abbreviations typically exclude the initials of short function words (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 London) and LotR (Lord of the Rings). This usually occurs when the acronym represents a multi-word pro per noun. Numbers (both cardinal and ordinal) in names are often represented by digits rat her than initial letters: as in 4GL (Fourth generation language) or G77 (Group o f 77). Large numbers may use metric prefixes, as with Y2K for "Year 2000" (somet imes written Y2k, because the SI symbol for 1000 is k not K, which stands for ke lvin). Exceptions using initials for numbers include TLA (three-letter acronym/a bbreviation) and GoF (Gang of Four). Abbreviations using numbers for other purpo ses include repetitions, such as W3C ("World Wide Web Consortium") and T3 (Trend s, Tips & Tools for Everyday Living); pronunciation, such as B2B ("business to b usiness"); and numeronyms, such as i18n ("internationalization"; 18 represents t

he 18 letters between the initial i and the final n). Changes to (or word play on) the expanded meaning Pseudo-acronyms In some cases, an acronym has been redefined as a non-acronymous namecreating a p seudo-acronym. The term "orphan initialism" has also been used for names that be gan as an acronym but lost this status.[53][54] Such an apparent acronym or othe r abbreviation that does not stand for anything cannot be expanded to some meani ng. For example, the letters of the SAT (pronounced as letters) US college entra nce test no longer officially stand for anything.[55] This is common with compan ies that want to retain brand recognition while moving away from an outdated ima ge: American Telephone and Telegraph became AT&T,[53] Kentucky Fried Chicken bec ame KFC to de-emphasize the role of frying in the preparation of its signature d ishes,[56] and British Petroleum became BP.[57][54] Pseudo-acronyms may have advantages in international markets: for example, some national affiliates of International Business Machines are legally incorporated as "IBM" (or, for example, "IBM Canada") to avoid translating the full name into local languages. Likewise, "UBS" is the name of the merged Union Bank of Switze rland and Swiss Bank Corporation,[58] and "HSBC" has replaced "The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation." Redundant acronyms and RAS syndrome Main article: RAS syndrome Rebranding can lead to redundant acronym syndrome, as when Trustee Savings Bank became TSB Bank, or when Railway Express Agency became REA Express. A few high-t ech companies have taken the redundant acronym to the extreme: for example, ISM Information Systems Management Corp. and SHL Systemhouse Ltd. An example in ente rtainment is the television shows CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and Navy: NCIS, where the redundancy was likely designed to educate new viewers as to what the initials stood for. The same stood for when the Royal Bank of Canada's Canadian operations rebranded to RBC Royal Bank, or when Bank of Montreal rebranded their retail banking subsidiary BMO Bank of Montreal. Another common example is RAM memory, which is redundant because RAM (random-acc ess memory) includes the initial of the word memory. PIN stands for personal ide ntification number, obviating the second word in PIN number. Other examples incl ude ATM machine (automated teller machine machine), EAB bank (European American Bank bank), DC Comics (Detective Comics Comics), HIV virus (human immunodeficien cy virus virus), Microsoft's NT Technology (New Technology Technology) and the f ormerly redundant SAT test (Scholastic Achievement/Aptitude/Assessment Test test , now simply SAT Reasoning Test). TNN (The Nashville/National Network) also rena med itself The New TNN for a brief interlude. Simple redefining Sometimes, the initials continue to stand for an expanded meaning, but the origi nal meaning is simply replaced. Some examples: DVD was originally an acronym of the unofficial term digital video disk, but is now stated by the DVD Forum as standing for Digital Versatile Disc. GAO changed the full form of its name from General Accounting Office to Gove rnment Accountability Office. The OCLC changed the full form of its name from Ohio College Library Center to Online Computer Library Center. RAID used to mean Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks, but is now commonly interpreted as Redundant Array of Independent Disks. WWF originally stood for World Wildlife Fund, but now stands for Worldwide F und for Nature (although the former name is still used in the US). Backronyms

Main article: Backronym A backronym (or bacronym) is a phrase that is constructed "after the fact" from a previously existing word. For example, the novelist and critic Anthony Burgess once proposed that the word "book" ought to stand for "Box Of Organized Knowled ge."[59] A classic real-world example of this in action is the name of the prede cessor to the Apple Macintosh, The Apple Lisa, which was said to refer to "Local Integrated Software Architecture", but Steve Jobs' daughter, born 1978, was nam ed Lisa. Contrived acronyms Acronyms are sometimes contrived, that is, deliberately designed to be especiall y apt for the thing being named (by having a dual meaning or by borrowing the po sitive connotations of an existing word). Some examples of contrived acronyms ar e USA PATRIOT, CAN SPAM, CAPTCHA and ACT UP. The clothing company French Connect ion began referring to itself as fcuk, standing for "French Connection United Ki ngdom." The company then created t-shirts and several advertising campaigns that exploit the acronym's similarity to the taboo word "fuck". See the list of fict ional 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 RESURREC T, NIRVANA, and DUDE. In July 2010, Wired Magazine reported that DARPA announced programs to "..transform biology from a descriptive to a predictive field of sc ience" named BATMAN and ROBIN for Biochronicity and Temporal Mechanisms Arising in Nature and Robustness of Biologically-Inspired Networks,[60] a reference to t he Batman and Robin comic-book superheroes. Some acronyms are chosen deliberately to avoid a name considered undesirable: Fo r example, Verliebt in Berlin (ViB), a German telenovela, was first intended to be Alles nur aus Liebe (All for Love), but was changed to avoid the resultant ac ronym ANAL. Likewise, the Computer Literacy and Internet Technology qualificatio n is known as CLaIT,[61] rather than CLIT. In Canada, the Canadian Conservative Reform Alliance (Party) was quickly renamed to the Canadian Reform Conservative Alliance when its opponents pointed out that its initials spelled CCRAP (pronoun ced "see crap"). (The satirical magazine Frank had proposed alternatives to CCRA P, namely SSHIT and NSDAP.) Two Irish Institutes of Technology (Galway and Trale e) chose different acronyms from other institutes when they were upgraded from R egional Technical colleges. Tralee RTC became the Institute of Technology Tralee (ITT), as opposed to Tralee Institute of Technology (TIT). Galway RTC became Ga lway-Mayo Institute of Technology (GMIT), as opposed to Galway Institute of Tech nology (GIT). Team in Training is known as TNT and not TIT. Technological Instit ute of Textile & Sciences is still known as TITS. Contrived acronyms differ from backronyms in that they were originally conceived with the artificial expanded meaning, whereas backronyms are later-invented exp ansions.[citation needed] Macronyms/nested acronyms A macronym, or nested acronym, is an acronym in which one or more letters stand for acronyms themselves.[citation needed] A special type of macronym has letters that refer back to itself when expanded. These are called recursive acronyms. O ne of the earliest examples appears in The Hacker's Dictionary as MUNG, which st ands for "MUNG Until No Good" Some examples of recursive acronyms are: GNU stands for "GNU's Not Unix" LAME stands for "LAME Ain't an MP3 Encoder" PHP stands for "PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor"

WINE stands for "WINE Is Not an Emulator" HURD stands for "HIRD of Unix-replacing daemons", where HIRD itself stands f or "HURD of interfaces representing depth" (a "mutually recursive" acronym) Non-recursive macronyms: XHR stands for XML HTTP Request, in which XML is eXtensible Markup Language, and HTTP stands for HyperText Transfer Protocol. POWER stands for "Performance Optimization With Enhanced RISC", in which (RI SC stands for Reduced Instruction Set Computing) VHDL stands for "VHSIC Hardware Description Language", in which (VHSIC stand s for Very High Speed Integrated Circuit.) (This example is not a recursive acro nym) XSD stands for "XML Schema Definition", in which (XML stands for eXtensible Markup Language.) SECS stands for "SEMI equipment communication standard", in which SEMI stand s for "Semiconductor equipment manufacturing industries". AIM stands for "AOL Instant Messenger", in which AOL stands for America Onli ne. Some non-recursive macronyms can be multiply nestedthe second order acronym point s to another one further down a hierarchy. In an informal competition run by the magazine New Scientist, a fully documented specimen was discovered that may be the most deeply nested of all: RARS is the "Regional ATOVS Retransmission Servic e", ATOVS is Advanced TOVS, TOVS is TIROS operational vertical sounder and TIROS is Television infrared observational satellite.[62] Non-English language Asian languages Chinese In English language discussion of languages with syllabic or logographic writing systems (such as Chinese, Japanese, and Korean), acronym describes short forms that take selected characters from a multi-character word.

For example, in Chinese, the word ""/"" ("university" in traditional/simplified Chin ese, literally "big school"), when used with the name of the university, is usua lly abbreviated simply as "" *"big"). So "" (Beijing University ("" = "Beijing" lly "north capital")) is commonly abbreviated to "" (literally "north big"). In th is case, the first characters "" and "" from "" and "" are taken to compose the s form. In some cases, however, other characters than the first can be selected. F or example, the local short form of "" (Hong Kong University, "" = "Hong Kong") i ther than "".

There are also cases where some longer phrases are abbreviated drastically, espe cially in Chinese politics, where proper nouns were initially translated from So viet Leninist terms. For instance, the full name of China's highest ruling counc il, the Politburo Standing Committee (PSC), is "Standing Committee of the Centra l Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China" ( ). The ter rty of China" part of its name through acronyms, then the "Standing Committee" p art, again through acronyms, to create "". Alternatively, it omitted the "C " part altogether, creating "Politburo Standing Committee" (), and eventually jus anding Committee" (). The PSC's members full designations are "Member of the Standi ng Committee of the Central Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China" ( ally drastically reduced to simply Changwei (), with the term Ruchang () used increa singly for officials destined for a future seat on the PSC. In another example, the word "" (National People's Congress) can be broken into four parts: " tion", "" = "people", "" = "representatives", "" = "conference". Yet, in its shor m "" (literally "man/people big"), only the first characters from the second and t he fourth parts are selected; the first part ("") and the third part ("") are simply ignored. In describing such abbreviations, the term initialism is inapplicable.

[original research?]

Many proper nouns become shorter and shorter over time. For example, the CCTV Ne w Year's Gala, whose full name is literally read as "China Central Television Sp ring Festival Joint Celebration Evening Gala" ( ) was first shortene t Celebration Evening Gala" ( ), but eventually referred to as simply Chunwan ( he same vein, Zhongguo Zhongyang Dianshi Tai ( ) was reduced to Yangshi ( ) i s. Japanese Main article: Japanese abbreviated and contracted words

The Japanese language makes extensive use of acronyms. This is most prevalent in katakana transcriptions of foreign words; for example, the Pokmon media franchis e's name originally stood for "pocket monsters" (), which is stil Japanese, and "wpuro" stands for "word processor" (). However, native kanji and hiragana words. Indonesian See also: List of Indonesian acronyms and abbreviations There is also a widespread use of acronyms in Indonesia in every aspect of socia l life. For example, the Golkar political party stands for Partai Golongan Karya , Monas stands for "Monumen Nasional" (National Monument), the Angkot public tra nsport stands for "Angkutan Kota" (city public transportation), warnet stands fo r "warung internet" (internet cafe), and many others. Some acronyms are consider ed formal (or officially adopted), while many more are considered informal, slan g or colloquial. The capital's metropolitan area (Jakarta and its surrounding satellite regions), Jabodetabek, is another infamous acronym. This stands for Jakarta-Bogor-Depok-T angerang-Bekasi. Many highways are also named by the acronym method; e.g. Jalan Tol (Toll Road) Jagorawi (Jakarta-Bogor-Ciawi) and Purbaleunyi (Purwakarta-Bandu ng-Cileunyi), Joglo Semar (Jogja-solo-semarang). In some languages, especially those that use certain alphabets, many acronyms co me from the military. The Indonesian military (TNI Tentara Nasional Indonesia) a nd Indonesian police (POLRI Kepolisian Republik Indonesia) are infamous for heav y acronyms use. Examples include the Kopassus (Komando Pasukan Khusus; Special F orces Command), Kopaska (Komando Pasukan Katak; Frogmen Command), Kodim (Komando Distrik Militer; Military District Command one of the Indonesian army's adminis trative divisions), Serka (Sersan Kepala; Head Sergeant), Akmil (Akademi Militer ; Military Academy in Magelang) and many other terms regarding ranks, units, div isions, procedures, etc. Heavy acronym use by Indonesians, makes it difficult for foreigners and learners of Bahasa Indonesia to seek information and news in Indonesian media.[citation needed] German German tends toward acronyms that use syllables rather than letterssuch as Gestap o rather than GSP (for Geheime Staatspolizei, secret state police); Flak rather than FAK (for Fliegerabwehrkanone, anti-aircraft gun); Kripo rather than KP (for Kriminalpolizei, detective division police). The extension of such contraction to a pervasive or whimsical degree has been mockingly labeled AbKFi (for Abkrzfimm el, strange habit of abbreviating). Examples of AbKFi include Vokuhila (for vorne kurz, hinten lang, short in the front, long in the back, i.e., a mullet) and th e mocking of Adolf Hitler's title as Grfaz (Grter Feldherr aller Zeiten, Greatest G eneral of all Times). Hebrew Main article: Hebrew acronyms

It is common to take more than just one initial letter from each of the words co mposing the acronym; regardless of this, the abbreviation sign gershayim is alwa ys 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. Ex amples: ( for , the United States); ( for , the Soviet Union the initial letters from its component words is "( Tzahal", for , Israel D flected forms the abbreviation sign gershayim remains between the second-last an d last letters of the non-inflected form of the acronym (e.g. "report", singular : "", plural: "" ;"squad commander", masculine: "", feminine: ")". Swahili In Swahili, acronyms are common for naming organizations such as TUKI, which sta nds 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 declined, various methods are used. An example is F innish, where a colon is used to separate inflection from the letters: An acronym is pronounced as a word: Nato [nato] Natoon [naton] "into Nato" An acronym is pronounced as letters: EU [e u] EU:hun [e uhun] "into EU" An acronym is interpreted as words: EU [europan unioni] EU:iin [europan unionin ] "into EU" The process above is similar to how, in English, hyphens are used for clarity wh en prefixes are added to acronyms, thus pre-NATO policy (rather than preNATO). Lenition In languages such as Scottish Gaelic and Irish, where lenition (initial consonan t mutation) is commonplace, acronyms must also be modified in situations where c ase and context dictate it. In the case of Scottish Gaelic, a lower case "h" is added after the initial consonant; for example, BBC Scotland in the genitive cas e would be written as BhBC Alba, with the acronym pronounced "VBC". Likewise, th e 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 te rm that stands for "Administrative Command, Amphibious Forces, Pacific Fleet Sub ordinate Command." Another term COMNAVSEACOMBATSYSENGSTA, which stands for "Comm ander, Naval Sea Systems Combat Engineering Station" is longer but the word "Com bat" is not shortened. The world's longest acronym, according to the Guinness Book of World Records is NIIOMTPLABOPARMBETZHELBETRABSBOMONIMONKONOTDTEKHSTROMONT ( of Soviet Terminology and means "The laboratory for shuttering, reinforcement, concrete and ferroconcrete operations for composite-monolithic and monolithic co nstructions of the Department of the Technology of Building-assembly operations of the Scientific Research Institute of the Organization for building mechanizat ion and technical aid of the Academy of Building and Architecture of the Union o f Soviet Socialist Republics." (- [...] The card-game Magic The Gathering has a playing card called "Our Market Rese arch Shows That Players Like Really Long Card Names So We Made this Card to Have the Absolute Longest Card Name Ever Elemental", with text on it saying: "Just c all it OMRSTPLRLCNSWMTCTHTALCNEE for short."[63] See also Acronyms in healthcare

Acronyms in the Philippines Acrostic Amalgamation (names) Astronomical Acronyms Backronym Initialized sign Internet slang List of abbreviations List of abbreviations in photography List of acronyms List of fictional espionage organizations List of Japanese Latin alphabetic abbreviations -onym Portmanteau RAS syndrome (Redundant Acronym Syndrome syndrome) Recursive acronym Syllabic abbreviation Three letter acronym References ^ Fischer, Roswitha. (1998). Lexical change in present-day English: A corpus -based study of the motivation, institutionalization, and productivity of creati ve neologisms. Tbingen: G. Narr. ^ Paris Gazette, by Lion Feuchtwanger; translated (from Exil)by Willa and Ed win Muir, New York, Viking Press, 1940. Chapter 47, Beasts of Prey, pages 665666: "His first glance at the _Paris German News_ told Wiesener that this new paper was nothing like the old _P.G._. "They can call it the _P.G.N._ if they like", h e thought, "but that's the only difference. Pee-gee-enn; what's the word for wor ds like that, made out of initials? My memory is beginning to fail me. [p. 666] Just the other day there was a technical expression I couldn't remember. I must be growing old. "_P.G._ or _P.G.N._, it's six of one and half a dozen of the oth er.... Pee-gee-enn. It's an acronym, that's what it is. That's what they call wo rds made up of initials. So i remember it after all; that's at least something.. .." For "Akronym" used in 1921 or 1922, giving an example of "Agfa" film: Brockh aus Handbuch des Wissens in vier Bnden. Leipzig, F. A. Brockhaus, [192223, c1921-2 3] v.1 p. 37. [1] ^ "Guide to the Third Edition of the OED". Oxford English Dictionary. Oxford University Press. August 19, 2010. Retrieved December 19, 2012. ^ Merriam-Webster, Inc. Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of English Usage, 1994. ISBN 0-87779-132-5. pp. 212: acronyms A number of commentators (as Copperud 1970, Janis 1984, Howar d 1984) believe that acronyms can be differentiated from other abbreviations in being pronounceable as words. Dictionaries, however, do not make this distinctio n because writers in general do not: "The powder metallurgy industry has officially adopted the acronym ' P/M Parts'" Precision Metal Molding, January 1966. "Users of the term acronym make no distinction between those pronoun ced as words and those pronounced as a series of characters" Jean Praninskas, Tra de Name Creation, 1968. "It is not J.C.B.'s fault that its name, let alone its acronym, is n ot a household word among European scholars" Times Literary Supp. 5 February 1970 . " the confusion in the Pentagon about abbreviations and acronymswords formed from the first letters of other words" Bernard Weinraub., N.Y. Times, 11 D ecember 1978 Pyles & Algeo 1970 divide acronyms into "initialisms", which consists of

initial letters pronounced with the letter names, and "word acronyms", which ar e pronounced as words. Initialism, an older word than acronym, seems to be too l ittle known to the general public to serve as the customary term standing in con trast with acronym in a narrow sense. ^ a b "acronym". The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Current English (1991), Ox ford University Press. p. 12: "a word, usu[ally] pronounced as such, formed from the initial letters of other words (e.g. Ernie, laser, Nato)". ^ "acronym" "Webster's Online Dictionary (2001)", accessed Oct 7, 2008: Acro nym "A word formed from the initial letters of a multi-word name." ^ "acronym" "Cambridge Dictionary of American English", accessed Oct 5, 2008 : "a word created from the first letters of each word in a series of words." ^ "acronym." Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, accessed May 2, 2006: "a wor d (as NATO, radar, or laser) formed from the initial letter or letters of each o f the successive parts or major parts of a compound term; also: an abbreviation (as FBI) formed from initial letters: see initialism " ^ a b Crystal, David (1995). The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Langu age, Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-55985-5. p. 120: Its encyclopedic en try for Abbreviation contains an inset entitled "Types of Abbreviation", which l ists Initialisms, followed by Acronyms, which he describes simply as "Initialism s pronounced as single words" but then adds "However, some linguists do not reco gnize a sharp distinction between acronyms and initialisms, but use the former t erm for both." ^ "acronym". Webster's New Universal Unabridged Dictionary (2003), Barnes & Noble. ISBN 0-7607-4975-2. "1. a word created from the first letter or letters o f each word in a series of words or a phrase. 2. a set of initials representing a name, organization, or the like, with each letter pronounced separately, as FB I for Federal Bureau of Investigation." ^ "acronym". American Heritage Dictionary. Retrieved 25 April 2013. Acronyms are often distinguished from initialisms like FBI and NIH, whose individual let ters are pronounced as separate syllables. While observing this distinction has some virtue in precision, it may be lost on many people, for whom the term acron ym refers to both kinds of abbreviations. ^ "acronym" Oxford English Dictionary. Ed. J.A. Simpson and E.S.C. Weiner. 2 nd ed. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989. OED Online Oxford University Press. Access ed May 2, 2006. ^ "CollegeBoard.com". CollegeBoard.com. Retrieved September 16, 2010. ^ Robinson, Paul (2008). "C4ISR". Dictionary of international security. Poli ty. p. 31. ISBN 0-7456-4028-1. ^ "Nooit opgegeven, al 95 jaar doorgezet!" (in Dutch). NAC Breda. September 19, 2007. "Precies 95 jaar terug smolten NOAD (Nooit Opgeven Altijd Doorzetten) en Advendo (Aangenaam Door Vermaak en Nuttig Door Ontspanning) samen in de NOADADVENDO Combinatie, kortom NAC." ^ Dart, James (December 14, 2005). "What is the longest team name in the wor ld?". The Guardian (London). Retrieved May 19, 2009. ^ a b B. Davenport American Notes and Queries (February 1943) vol 2 page 167 "Your correspondent who asks about words made up of the initial letters or syll ables of other words may be interested in knowing that I have seen such words ca lled by the name acronym, which is useful and clear to anyone who knows a little Greek." ^ Ingenious Trifling, www.etymonline.com ^ S. V. Baum (1962) American Speech Vol. 37 No. 1, The Acronym, Pure and Imp ure ^ American Speech (1943) Vol. 18, No. 2, page 142 ^ American Speech (1950) Vol. 25 No. 2 page 147 ^ a b Wilton, David (2004). Word myths: debunking linguistic urban legends. ISBN 978-0-19-517284-3. Retrieved September 16, 2010. ^ "Urban Legends Reference Pages: Language (Acronyms)". Snopes.com. Retrieve d September 16, 2010. ^ "Alphabet". Britannica.com. Retrieved September 16, 2010.

^ K. D. Nilsen & A. P. Nilsen (1995) The English Journal Vol. 84, No. 6.,"Li terary Metaphors and Other Linguistic Innovations in Computer Language" ^ Crystal, David. Txtng: The Gr8 Db8. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008. ISBN 978-0-19-954490-5 ^ Patel CB, Rashid RM (February 2009). "Averting the proliferation of acrony mophilia in dermatology: effectively avoiding ADCOMSUBORDCOMPHIBSPAC". J Am Acad Dermatol 60 (2): 3404. doi:10.1016/j.jaad.2008.10.035. PMID 19150279. ^ See Snopes article. ^ a b Quinion, Michael (2005). Port Out, Starboard Home: And Other Language Myths. Penguin Books. ISBN 0-14-101223-4.; published in the US as Quinion, Micha el (2006). Ballyhoo, Buckaroo, and Spuds. HarperCollins. ISBN 0-06-085153-8. ^ "See article at Snopes". Snopes.com. Retrieved September 16, 2010. ^ a b "Etymonline.com". Etymonline.com. Retrieved September 16, 2010. ^ "Abbreviations". Informatics.susx.ac.uk. Archived from the original on Aug ust 23, 2010. Retrieved September 16, 2010. ^ Kristoff, Nicholas D. (February 7, 2004). "Secret Obsessions at the Top". The New York Times. Retrieved July 5, 2008. ^ A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations, Kate T urabian, 7th Edition, subsection 20.1.2 ^ Modern Language Association (MLA) Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, 7th Edition 2009, subsection 3.2.7.g ^ a b Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA), 5t h Edition 2001, subsection 3.28 ^ "Taligent Style Guide A". Pcroot.cern.ch. Archived from the original on Au gust 24, 2010. Retrieved September 16, 2010. ^ "Writer's Block Writing Tips Plural and Possessive Abbreviations". Writers block.ca. Retrieved September 16, 2010. ^ Robert. "EditFast Grammar Resource: Apostrophes: Forming Plurals". Editfas t.com. Archived from the original on October 27, 2010. Retrieved September 16, 2 010. ^ "Libraries Australia T.H. McWilliam, Charles Kingsford Smith, Prime Minist er of New Zealand Joseph Coates, Charles Ulm and H.A. Litchfield in front row wi th Members of Parliament on steps of Parliament House, Wellington, New Zealand, September 1928 [picture] / Crown Studios". Nla.gov.au. Archived from the origina l on August 26, 2010. Retrieved September 16, 2010. ^ Author: Robin Hyde. "Chapter III. The House is in Session". NZETC. Retriev ed September 16, 2010. ^ "''Under the party plan'' by C.J. Dennis (18761938)". Middlemiss.org. Janua ry 18, 1912. Archived from the original on August 22, 2010. Retrieved September 16, 2010. ^ http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/page/5605107 ^ http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/27755397 ^ http://www.electricscotland.com/history/australia/melbourne11.htm ^ Barbara Ann Kipfer (2007). Word Nerd: More Than 18,000 Fascinating Facts a bout Words. Sourcebooks, Inc. Retrieved March 12, 2013. ^ Steven Pinker (2011). Words and Rules: The Ingredients of Language. Harper Collins. Retrieved March 12, 2013. ^ Bryan Garner (2009). Garner's Modern American Usage. Oxford University Pre ss. Retrieved March 12, 2013. ^ "Sox try to stay clear of big hitters PCL team doesn't want to compete wit h Broncos, AFA". The Gazette. August 8, 1989. Retrieved March 12, 2013. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary (6th ed.), Oxford University Press, 2007 , ISBN 978-0-19-920687-2 ^ "Styleguide". London: Guardian.co.uk. December 19, 2008. ^ "BBC News Style Guide". bbc.co.uk. ^ a b Language Log: Orphan initialisms ^ a b What Does "BP" Stand For? ^ Komarek, Dan (July 29, 2003). "Changes to SAT Make Test More Coachable". D aily Californian. ^ Peter O. Keegan (February 21, 1991). "KFC shuns 'fried' image with new nam

e Kentucky Fried Chicken has changed its name to KFC". Nation's Restaurant News. Retrieved August 24, 2007. This change was also applied to other languages, wit h Poulet Frit Kentucky becoming PFK in French Canada. ^ "BP plc History". Retrieved September 29, 2010. ^ UBS means RIP for Warburg. The Daily Telegraph, Nov 13, 2002 ^ 99 Novels: The Best in English Since 1939 (New York: Summit Books, 1984). ^ Katie Drummond (July 6, 2010). "Holy Acronym, Darpa! Batman & Robin to Maste r Biology, Outdo Evolution". Wired. ^ University of Cambridge International Examinations team, University of Cam bridge International Examinations > CLAiTInternational page ^ "Very deep multiply nested acronyms". Newscientist.com. July 7, 2010. Arch ived from the original on September 14, 2010. Retrieved September 16, 2010. ^ http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=74237 External links Look up acronym, initialism, or alphabetism in Wiktionary, the free dict ionary. Acronyms at the Open Directory Project Categories: Abbreviations Acronyms Initialisms Types of words Navigation menu Create account Log in Article Talk Read Edit View history Main page Contents Featured content Current events Random article Donate to Wikipedia Interaction Help About Wikipedia Community portal Recent changes Contact Wikipedia Toolbox Print/export Languages Afrikaans Alemannisch

Asturianu () Brezhoneg Catal esky Dansk Deutsch Eesti Espaol Esperanto Euskara Franais Galego Hrvatski Ido Bahasa Indonesia slenska Italiano Latvieu Ltzebuergesch Lietuvi Magyar Bahasa Melayu Nederlands Norsk bokml Norsk nynorsk Plattdtsch Polski Portugus Romn Sardu Sicilianu Simple English Slovenina Slovenina Srpskohrvatski / Suomi Svenska Ting Vit Edit links This page was last modified on 25 April 2013 at 00:42. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use a

nd Privacy Policy. Wikipedia is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a nonprofit organization. Privacy policy About Wikipedia Disclaimers Contact Wikipedia Mobile view Wikimedia Foundation Powered by MediaWiki