Proper definition for "acronym" (was A vs, an)

["Downing, David" <DavidDowning -at- users -dot- com>]

In the thread about whether to use "a" or "an" at the beginning of an
acronym, I noticed there was some disagreement as to what comes under
the heading of an acronym. Some people say that the word refers
specifically to *words* formed from the first letters of a phrase, which
is what the short definition on the Onelook site says:

http://www.onelook.com/?w=acronym&ls=a

Others seem to think that the term can also include initializes, and
this definition seems to support that:

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/acronym

Is there a widely accepted consensus about which definition is correct?
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