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

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

And the whole matter is further complicated by the fact that some things
that used to be initialisms are now being pronounced as words. The one
I've encountered most recently in my work is "smee" -- like the
character in Peter Pan -- for SME. And URL didn't used to be pronounced
"earl." What's next. Are people going to start talking about taking the
"grees" to get into grad school? (I once cracked everybody up at a
benefits meeting by saying, "Now if I decide to get a hmoe ... ")

-----Original Message-----
From: Nancy Allison [mailto:maker -at- verizon -dot- net] 
Sent: Tuesday, January 13, 2009 10:16 AM
To: Downing, David
Cc: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Subject: RE: Proper definition for "acronym" (was A vs, an)


Ah, one of my pet obssessions (as in, "Did I dream this? Wasn't this 
true once long ago?")

I learned there were three distinct categories of *shortened phrases*, 
for lack of a better term:

---Abbreviations: initial letters of a phrase, that do not create a word

or word-like collection of letters. Example: FBI. BLM. CBS. etc., etc.

---Acronyms: initial letters that create a word or word-like thingy: 
RADAR, CREEP (my fave), etc., etc.

---I cannot remember! But there WAS one! Maybe it was for the word-like 
thingies (RADAR) and acronyms were only for real words (CREEP).


One of these decades I will trawl through a bunch of elderly reference 
books and see if I can find that original set of terms. I know there 
were three! I know it, I know it! (She said, shaking her blue-veined 
fists impotently) . . .

Gawd sometimes I feel so old.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

ComponentOne Doc-To-Help 2009 is your all-in-one authoring and publishing 
solution. Author in Doc-To-Help's XML-based editor,  Microsoft Word or 
HTML and publish to the Web, Help systems or printed manuals. 
http://www.doctohelp.com

Help & Manual 5: The complete help authoring tool for individual
authors and teams. Professional power, intuitive interface. Write
once, publish to 8 formats. Multi-user authoring and version control! http://www.helpandmanual.com/

---
You are currently subscribed to TECHWR-L as archive -at- web -dot- techwr-l -dot- com -dot- 

To unsubscribe send a blank email to 
techwr-l-unsubscribe -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
or visit http://lists.techwr-l.com/mailman/options/techwr-l/archive%40web.techwr-l.com


To subscribe, send a blank email to techwr-l-join -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com

Send administrative questions to admin -at- techwr-l -dot- com -dot-  Visit
http://www.techwr-l.com/ for more resources and info. 

Please move off-topic discussions to the Chat list, at:
http://lists.techwr-l.com/mailman/listinfo/techwr-l-chat