Wednesday November 14, 2007
Isn’t an acronym an abbreviation?
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UPON reading Stephen Kau’s contribution on the precise definition and proper usage of acronyms (Nov 1), I was prompted to hit the books to verify his assertion that an acronym is very narrowly defined as “an abbreviation that is pronounced as a word”.
Hence, according to Mr Kau, the short-forms CID, DVD and TGIF are not acronyms but rather “abbreviations”. Correct me if I am wrong, but isn’t an acronym, in effect, an abbreviation? As are all shortened terms and phrases, with the definition of abbreviation simply being a shortened or contracted form of a word used to represent the whole?
Why then is there the implicit ruling that the word “acronym” can only be used to mean short-forms that are pronounceable, when at the same time the word “abbreviation” is to be used so loosely?
According to Stephen Kau’s theory, only abbreviations such as Scuba, Nato and Radar are true acronyms because they are pronounceable.
This makes me wonder how Mr Kau might then define abbreviations that are not made up of initials at all, but rather syllables such as Interpol or Hi-fi. And what about short-forms whose pronunciation involves the combination of both letter names and words, such as JPEG and MS-DOS?
Are these also to be known under the all-encompassing “abbreviations”, even when Mr Kau insists on such a rigid interpretation of the meaning of the word “acronym”?
– James Bong
Yes, James is correct, in that an acronym IS an abbreviation. The difference, such as it is, is that acronyms are a sub-category, as it were, of the broad group of name/phrase/title-representing initials called abbreviations.
The difference is moot, really, and of minor relevance to the pedants among us.
As for James’s other query regarding JPEG, MS-DOS and other representations that are combinations of the so-called sub-group and the broad category, I would suggest that the pronounceable factor takes precedence, thus making such words acronyms.
One last thought for James and others of like mind – goodness me, folks ... it’s not my theory. I offered my little piece as a mere morsel for the brain to chew over – after I saw the movie Transformers and was irritated by a character’s reference to NBE (non-biological extraterrestrial) as an acronym, even after he said “enn-bee-ee”.
– Stephen Kau
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