Quick and Dirty Tips Podcasts

Episode Transcript

Abbreviations, Acronyms, And Initialisms
Episode 19: October 10, 2006

Grammar Girl here.

Today's topic is the difference between abbreviations, acronyms, and initialisms. It's kind of an extension of the last episode, because I want to clarify the difference between abbreviations and acronyms.

Any shortened form of a word is an abbreviation, for example, etc. for etcetera and Oct. for October; but acronyms are special kinds of abbreviations, such as ROFL (rolling on the floor laughing) and OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries), that can be pronounced as words. This makes them a subset of abbreviations. All acronyms are abbreviations, but not all abbreviations are acronyms.

Initialisms are another type of abbreviation. They are often confused with acronyms because they are made up of letters, so they look similar, but they can't be pronounced as words. FBI and CIA are examples of initialisms because they're made up of the first letters of Federal Bureau of Investigation and Central Intelligence Agency, respectively, but they can't be pronounced as words. NASA, on the other hand, is an acronym because even though it is also made up of the first letters of the department name (National Aeronautics and Space Administration), it is pronounced as a word, NASA, and not by spelling out the letters N, A, S, A.

So remember:

Initialisms are made from the first letter (or letters) of a string of words, but can't be pronounced as words themselves. Examples include FBI, CIA, FYI (for your information), and PR (public relations).
Acronyms are made from the first letter (or letters) of a string of words but are pronounced as if they were words themselves. Examples include NASA, NIMBY (not in my backyard), and hazmat* (hazardous materials).
Abbreviations are any shortened form of a word.

Finally, there's no strict rule about putting periods after each letter in an acronym or initialism. Some publications put periods after each letter, arguing that because each letter is essentially an abbreviation for a word, periods are necessary. Other publications don't put periods after each letter, arguing that the copy looks cleaner without them, and that because they are made up of all capital letters, the fact that they are abbreviations is implied.

That's all. As always, this is Grammar Girl, striving to be your friendly guide in the writing world. Remember, if you'd like me to produce more episodes each week and on a regular schedule, you can help by taking the audience survey on the Grammar Girl page of QuickAndDirtyTips.com. It's the blue box at the top of the sidebar, and your answers are completely anonymous.

Links

Wikipedia Entry for Acronyms and Initalisms
Dictionary.com entry for Initialism
An excellent discussion by HTML developers about acronyms and abbreviations.
List of Common Abbreviations
Everyday Acronyms

* I haven't been able to find a definitive answer on the right way to write hazmat, but the U.S. government's Office of Hazardous Materials Safety writes it as hazmat so I'm sticking with that for now.

Comments (69) for Abbreviations, Acronyms, And Initialisms | Subscribe to Comment

Kristy Allison Says:
11/18/2009 9:55:37 AM

I teach middle school language arts, so I often get questions from teachers as well as students. One question, needless to say, was the result in middle school minds at work. The math teacher next door to me used the abbreviation "pp" for pages, which then resulted in an eruption of laughter from the students. She asked me the correct abbreviation for pages, and I responded with "pgs" for that particular reason. After discussing the use of "pp" by college professors and such, the best explanation I could figure was that "pp" was a Latin-based abbreviation, whereas "pgs" was a more Americanized abbreviation. Any input - besides don't use "pp" for abbreviations or refer to a task as a "duty" in front of middle school students?

Karen McCoy Says:
5/3/2009 9:42:40 AM

How do you abbreviate a year? Should the tail of the ' be curled down or up?

Carolyn Bahm Says:
4/2/2009 3:01:12 PM

My office's style is to put acronyms and initialisms in parentheses after the first reference. What we can't agree on is whether the first reference (the spelled-out phrase) has to be capitalized. For example, here's an industry term: average daily volume (ADV). Does "average daily volume" have to be capitalized, just because the initialism is? I could swear I read somewhere that it's not required, but I can't find it in the AP Stylebook or CMOS. Still looking. :o)

Paul Says:
1/20/2009 12:04:49 PM

Any suggestions on how to handle the Name of an institution, when using Initalisms for example “The American College of Cardiology” - when using the initalism - its it better to say "ACC are introducing a new programme" or "The Acc are introducing a new programme"

Shuji Says:
8/7/2008 1:46:01 AM

Greetings and a question from Japan.Is the word "blog" abbreviations? Or just an unusual acronyum as ID as you discussed?

Wes Says:
7/16/2008 3:03:52 PM

Any idea on the rules for the use of a corporate abbreviation like "LLC"? I know there should be a comma between the company name and LLC, but I'm unsure as to if there should also be a period after LLC? Should it be Jameson Solutions, LLC, is a great company. OR Jameson Solutions, LLC. is a great company. OR Jameson Solutions, LLC., is a great company. ANY IDEAS???

dude Says:
6/29/2008 9:25:10 PM

do acronyms have conjunctions in them? like bffe (best friend forever and ever) but you dont put the and. or wouldyou put it like bffae?

Charles Carson Says:
6/12/2008 5:32:52 PM

I'm reminded of a David Sedaris essay in "Me Talk Pretty One Day" (Boston: Little, Brown, 2000) in which he describes the hip teenagers he encountered in rural France asking him all about New York, which they pronounced 'ny' (a single word rhyming with 'eye'). When he tried to correct them, they replied, "But doesn't everyone is oosah say it that way?"

Charles Carson Says:
6/12/2008 5:18:37 PM

In "A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics" (5th ed, Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2003) under the headword "abbreviations," David Crystal writes, "Initialisms and alphabetisms reflect the separate pronunciation of the initial letter of the constituent words (TV, COD); acronyms are pronounced as single words (NATO, laser); clipped forms or clippings are reductions of longer forms, usually removing the end of the word (ad from advertisement), but sometimes the beginning (plane), or both beginning and ending together (flu); and blends combine parts of two words (sitcom, motel)."

Lori Says:
5/13/2008 6:33:10 PM

Is there a reference when to use uppercase vs lowercase for initialism? I've commonly seen uppercase for proper names, and lower case for things that follow a number such as ft.

stalin Says:
5/5/2008 8:02:57 AM

please send me.....concululation...book.of..toefl. please help me.

BOB Says:
4/19/2008 1:01:45 PM

Is the following sentence correct? "The Trees," is being purchased by everyone.

sunny Says:
4/16/2008 7:36:45 PM

i love ur website

William Pieske Says:
1/30/2008 12:53:51 PM

Question/comment re: abbreviations with periods vs. acronyms. I'm a freelance court reporter who records in verbatim fashion on my stenotype machine the spoken word for legal cases (not a news-type reporter). My wife is a court reporter, also. We disagree on the use of periods in abbreviations. She does them all without periods. I feel if it is said as a word, no periods. If they sound the letters out, put periods (even for common usage such as F.B.I., C.I.A., I.R.S.). It avoids confusion. An example: I had a case where a doctor referred in testimony to GERD (said as a word which stands for gastroesophageal reflux disease). He then later started saying the letters G.R.D. and G.E.R.D. (my wife would have typed GRD and GERD). My point is to show he says one as a word and the others as letters, you either have to have periods or even could be done with hyphens, such as we use when someone spells a word or name; i.e., the name Jones spelled by a witness would appear in a transcript as J-O-N-E-S. Granted, the hyphen format is harder to read. So what's appropriate? Remember: We are not writing for Time magazine or a website blog. We're writing something the Supreme Court may some day have to interpret. Thanks for your input. Sorry for the long-winded comment/question.

Grammar Girl Says:
9/22/2007 4:55:40 PM

Acronyms can be made up of the first letter, or letters, of words. So, because "hazmat" is pronounced as if it is a word itself, it is an acronym. (I've actually seen it written "hazmat," "Hazmat," "Haz-Mat," and "HazMat," so I'm not sure of the correct way to spell it out; but the U.S. government Office of Hazardous Materials Safety writes it as "hazmat," and I figure they would probably know.)

Tolak Says:
9/20/2007 8:37:29 AM

GG, Is HazMat properly an acronym, or an abbreviation? It doesn't follow the rules of initial letters, and whilst it does become a pronouncable "word" should really be in the latter category.

Carina Says:
9/12/2007 1:36:09 PM

Sorry, that was April 20 of this year...

Carina Says:
9/12/2007 1:34:47 PM

This question is related to Stu's of April 20, 2006. If the first usage is possessive, do you write the initialism/acronym that first time also as possessive, to correspond with how it's used? "The Canada Revenue Agency's (CRA's) approach is..." Thanks!

aardvark Says:
8/2/2007 6:11:03 PM

Hi,
aardvark is back in business after a long stint this summer of teaching grammar to little aardvarks who need to take important tests to get to aardvark college with honors.

The answer to your question is yes! According to Warriner's English Grammar and Composition," Use a comma to separate items in dates and addresses." (p.550)
Examples:

" Our sentimental idea was to hold a class reunion on June 20, 1980, at the old high school."

" Address me at 222 Twin Oaks Road, Akron, Ohio, after the first of March."

" Their baby was born on Monday, May 3, 1976, in Baltimore, Maryland."

So, the second part of your question is answered by the third example.

Hope this helps.

Carolyn Haney Says:
8/2/2007 2:48:50 PM

Grammar Girl, I have a punctuation question. When you write a city and a state in a sentence, I know that you separate the city and the state by a comma. Do you also put a comma after the state before going on with the sentence? (Ex. : I went to Miami, Florida, on vacation -- or I went to Miami, Florida on vacation.) I thought I remembered when I was teaching English classes several years ago that a comma should go after the state, but I see it so often the other way now. Does the same rule apply for dates in sentences?
Thanks so much! I love your pod cast!

Daniel Says:
5/26/2007 9:59:18 PM

Just listened to your podcast about abbreviations for measurements (ft for feet, in. for inches, etc.).

You said you didn't know why there's a period after the abbreviation or not.
From reading about the differences between American and British English, one of the differences is the use of a period after abbreviations like Mr. (British, Mr) and Dr. (Br., Dr). The reason is when an abbreviation uses the first and last letter of a word there's no need for the period in Br. English (example: ft), but not if the abbreviation includes the first letters or principle letters of the word (e.g., Lt., in. and abbr.).

And I think it's customary anyway to exclude the period after numbers, no matter what the abbreviation is.

What do you think?

Cyndy Says:
5/22/2007 1:41:19 PM

I think the more important issue is whether or not "S/W" is universally accepted as meaning "spoke with". In technology circles, "SW" (sometimes written as "S/W") refers to software.

Cyndy

Cheryl Says:
5/22/2007 1:06:49 PM

Is it improper to start a sentence with the abbreviation S/W (spoke with)?

stu Says:
5/14/2007 2:31:08 PM

The usage note in my American Heritage Dict. says that "none" is generally understood to be the same as "no one" or, by extension, "not one"; therefore, it would take the singular subject, "is".
In some cases, however, context may dictate that it take a plural subject.

Monica Says:
5/14/2007 11:19:51 AM

Which one is the correct choice?

-None of the bags IS leather.
OR
-None of the bags ARE leather.

stu Says:
4/25/2007 1:05:28 PM

Thanks for the input, aardvark. I had begun to lean toward including the "s", for aesthetic reasons (how it sounds as I read it). Although logically, I don't think it's called for.

aardvark Says:
4/25/2007 6:03:52 AM

This discussion is best begun with Patricia T. O’Conner’s statement in Woe Is I (p.30) “No two authorities seem to agree on how we should form the plural of abbreviations, letters, and numbers. Should we add s or ’s? Where one style maven sees UFO’s, another sees UFOs…this is more a matter of taste and readability than of grammar…”

aardvark does understand your question, Stu. You are wondering about the first reference to “Nongovernmental Organizations” (NGOs). If they are plural in your first usage, then (NGOs) seems logical.

For example:

aardvark has decided to donate all of his ants and termites to CARE, a nongovernmental organization (NGO).

Squiggly has decided to donate all of his food to a number of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs).

In checking out “nongovernmental organizations” on Google, aardvark counted 10-15 NGO websites within the first several Google pages pluralizing themselves as NGOs on the first occurrence.

Hope this helps.

aardvark

Tom Says:
4/24/2007 7:34:34 AM

Yeah, this is one of my pet peeves. It seems that a new function of the apostrophe has emerged - that being whenever just using an "s" doesn't look right. For example, with capitals "Twenty DVD's"; with vowels "twenty taxi's"; and with digits "the 60's".

Stu Says:
4/20/2007 3:34:18 AM

In text, when words that I define as an "initialization" are plural on first occurrence, do I include the lowercase "s". For example, do you think nongovernmental organizations should be rendered as(NGO) or (NGOs)? Of course, the initialization would be singular or plural as necessary in subsequent uses.

St. Louis Grammar Police Says:
3/28/2007 9:21:54 PM

I've never heard ROFL referred to as an acronym before, nor have I heard anyone SAY "ROFL." I maintain it is a simple abbreviation (or shorthand) - contrived as a matter of convenience for internet "conversation."

St. Louis Grammar Police Says:
3/28/2007 9:18:51 PM

"I.D." is commonly used, much in the same way we use "T.V." when we mean "television." I look at them as special cases - idiosyncrasies in American English which we must accept.

Burr M Says:
3/10/2007 5:44:32 PM

If ID was written with only the first letter capitalized, one would read ID as Id - as in Freudismese.
Maybe an answer, maybe not.

Grammar Girl Says:
3/9/2007 9:10:47 PM

You make an excellent point! I should have mentioned that authors should write out the full word or name before using an acronym or initialism.

Here is an example from a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) press release: "Dick Lehman quickly put together the President's Intelligence Checklist (PICL, pronounced “pickle”)."

Terry Says:
3/9/2007 8:42:07 PM

Dearest Ggrrl,

Horrors!

Are you to suggest we pepper our prose with obfuscation, leaving little recourse other than googling the initialism in search of the clarity sadly lacking in our original text? Are unexplained acronyms destined to derail the casual reader’s understanding, much as they befuddle the citizenry at a Pentagon hearing?

Without the writer’s gentle guidance, readers should be wary of a sleight of hand rivaling a joint resolution of congress. Explain that abbreviation, acronym or initialism at the outset, even if it’s a specialized audience, lest we add to the confusion abundant in our world.

aardvark Says:
3/8/2007 7:29:01 AM

The A.P. Stylebook (p.158) indicates that both Capt. and Sgt. are acceptable when written in an abbreviated form. However, according to the A.P.“ Spell out any title used before a name ” in a direct quotation.

During an interview at the White Sands Proving Ground in Las Cruces, New Mexico, a small aardvark was overheard to say, “ When Sergeant Roadrunner ordered all ants removed from the base, I went crazy. Worse, Sergeant Roadrunner’s superior, Captain Scorpion, was in agreement.”

However, additional research done on the use of military abbreviations in formal writing indicated the following: When the full name of the military officer is used, use the abbreviated form of the title. When only the surname is referenced, use the complete title.

Capt. John Smith
Captain Smith

Dave Kissling Says:
3/7/2007 7:18:33 PM

I had a question regarding common abbreviations. Is it still proper to use Capt. or Sgt. in formal writing? I've heard some say that these should be spelled out, even in names. And there does seem to be a trend toward this end. I need to know.

gehad Says:
2/23/2007 6:35:18 PM

it's a good things to show the grammar online and get the best things through it for many things so i hope to show the slide audo faster than because it take time when any one lode it

Cyndy M Says:
1/29/2007 9:07:09 PM

In response to Oscar's post:

Shocked? I don't believe Grammar Girl was using the initialism in a gratuitous manner, so I am puzzled at the acrimony.

The NYT has, in fact, included FUBAR in articles, and not only when quoting an individual.

Oscar Says:
1/29/2007 7:52:35 PM

I'm with Christie here. When I saw the title in my sister's podcast list I was a bit shocked. Is using a acronym that contains a profane word the same as any other acronym? Would it make it past the New York Times editors in an article?

Michael Uzochukwu Says:
1/23/2007 2:39:23 PM

You are doing a great job of improving the world's written English! One point that was missing from you abbreviations article was how to handle the plural and possessive forms of abbreviations. For example I've seen too many people write "NIMBY's" instead of "NIMBYs" as a plurel for NIMBY.

Cyndy Says:
1/9/2007 12:20:38 AM

Aw, c'mon....BFD

:-)

Grammar Girl Says:
1/8/2007 7:17:43 AM

Heck! Did you have to tell them? The sanitized version is "
fouled up beyond all recognition."

Christie Says:
1/8/2007 6:43:44 AM

Do you know what FUBAR means? It stands for "f**ked up beyond all/any recognition/reason." Now that you know, do you really want to use it in this forum?

Grammar Girl Says:
1/1/2007 9:41:43 PM

Wikipedia says it is abbreviated WWII.

The Associated Press Style Guide and the Chicago Manual of Style both write it out "World War II" and do not provide a recommended abbreviation.

I don't have the APA style guide.

Andrea Says:
12/31/2006 10:57:19 PM

Dear Grammar Girl,
Thank you for the helpful lessons. I've been looking for the "correct" way to abbreviate World War I and World War II. Perhaps this is simply a style question? (I follow APA.) Is the correct abbreviation WWII or WW II? (note the space between the WW and the II) Are there periods involved? (W.W. II or WW II) Or should I always spell out the entire phrase? (World War II or War War Two/the second World War)
Thanks in advance!

Pyta Says:
11/29/2006 1:57:11 AM

Thank you for you lovely and useful lessons!
I have been learning a lot from you. so are my students!! I am learning and enjoying the fact that someone takes some time in her life to teach people all over the world (like me and my students)!
keep the wonderful job!
from Brazil,
Pyta

Pedro Says:
11/25/2006 8:35:04 AM

Along these lines I know that in the intelligence community it is not unusual to refer to the CIA as the cia (see-ya) as evidence i would site a episode of sixty minutes on three American hostages in Colombia. In the episode the group that is holding the hostages accuses them of being members of the cia (see-ya). Living in The D.C (use periods seems arbitrary) are i hvae heard the CIA referred to as the see-ya. What do you think?

Grammar Girl Says:
11/8/2006 8:32:32 PM

The same problem came up with FBI. Some people say the letters and other people say "fibby."

I am not aware of a definitive answer on what to call these abbreviations that can go either way. I lean toward naming them according to the use that is more common, so in my book they would both be initialisms, but I don't have strong feelings about it.

ketched Says:
11/8/2006 7:44:18 PM

Sorry, I downloaded GG (abbreviation, I now know) podcasts and am just now listening to all of them. My question on this one: So is ASAP an abbreviation or an initialism? I've heard it A S A P and as a word pronouced a-sap.

brian d foy Says:
10/20/2006 12:25:39 AM

The difference between acronyms and initialisms isn't so much how they can be pronounced, but how they are pronounced. For instance, U.S. for "United States" could be "us", U.N. for "United Nations" could be "un" (and it was in the movie Idiocrary), but they aren't. We say the initials instead of making a word out of them, thus making them initialisms. Most acronyms probably started as initialisms until their pronunciation as a word caught on.

Although F.B.I. might be pronounced "fibbie" by insiders, that's merely jargon. Outside of the F.B.I. and those who work for it, no one will understand "fibbie". Some outsiders may say that, but they may be the same people who try to pronounce everything. "Fibbie" certainly isn't common usage or commonly accepted.

In my own line of work, I have to deal with this often. The computer language Perl has a backronym. That is, it started as a word ("Pearl" in this case), and had words applied to each letter in "Pearl" to get "Practical Extraction and Report Language" (or "Pathologically Eclectic Rubbish Lister"). The initialism came later, but some people confuse the order of events and want to write the name of the language as PERL.

Although "nobody" may know what the difference between acronyms and initialisms, that's no reason for editors to be ignorant too. Someone has to have standards! :)

Sarah Says:
10/20/2006 12:18:29 AM

Thinking back to a college class that revolved around Blanche Ellsworth, I'm remembering her view on putting periods in acronyms. This Grammar Goddess states that if the letters stand for something they need periods between the letters, unless it is a well-known acronym and everyone knows what the letters stand for already. For example, US would not because everyone knows that's United States.

Grammar Girl Says:
10/19/2006 8:07:49 PM

My dictionary (Webster's) defines an acronym as: a word (such as radar and snafu) formed from the initial letter or letters of each of the successive parts of major parts of a compound term. (I doubt that snafu was a real word before it was an acronym.) It defines initialism as an acronym formed from initial letters.

My American Heritage dictionary doesn't include initialism, and I am now tempted to hurl it out the window! It defines acronym as a word formed from the initial letters or parts of a word, such as PAC for political action committee. (This definition seems vague enough to me that you could interpret it to support the idea that an acronym needs to be pronounced as a word, especially given the example; but that may just be because that is how I would like to interpret it.)

My third dictionary (Random House Webster's) provides essentially the same information as the American Heritage dictionary. (Out the window it goes!)

I also checked out the multiple dictionary entries on acronym and initialism at dictionary.com. (The two entries on initialism disagree. One essentially lumps initialisms in with acronyms, and the other makes the distinction that initialisms are specifically not pronouned as words, but are instead spelled out. They even use FBI as the example.)

I really need to buy the Oxford English Dictionary!

The AP Stylebook and The Chicago Manual of Style do not seem to address the issue, although I didn't do an extensive search through the latter. I only checked the index.

There are multiple online references that support making a distinction:

Lynch's Guide to Grammar and Style says that purists make a distinction between acronyms and initialisms, but since nobody knows what the words mean anyway it's a lost cause.
Dr. Grammar makes the distinction between initialisms and acronyms, but then seems to use the words interchangeably in the examples.
Wikipedia also makes the distinction between initialisms and acronyms (and uses FBI as an example of an initialism.)

If you do a Google search on "initialism acronym" you will find many more references.

In short, I stand by my distinction between initialisms and acronyms. Despite the fact that many dictionary entries are vague, I think the weight of the evidence falls on the side of there being a difference between the two words. Also, I believe it's not a lost cause to educate people about the difference. Nevertheless, if you choose to use "acronym" to encompass both definitions, you are unlikely to encounter resistance in the real world.

With that said, I still don't know whether to call FBI an initialism or an acronym.

Cyndy Says:
10/19/2006 6:13:13 PM

I've known of the term 'fibbies' for FBI agents, and I'm by no means an insider. It did occur to me, after what you said about the distinction between acronyms and initialisms, that if one can call ROFL a 'word', then ANY set of letters can be called a word, and therefore an acronym. I agree with what Scott wrote - it has to already be a real word to be called an acronym.

Grammar Girl Says:
10/19/2006 2:57:49 AM

This topic is scheduled for a future episode, but the short answer is that it is "an LAPD squad car."

Grammar Girl Says:
10/19/2006 2:55:01 AM

Funny! I've never heard FBI agents called "fibbies." I have no idea how you would classify an abbreviation that isn't spoken as a word by ordinary people, but is spoken as a word by insiders. Are all the outsiders wrong, or are the insiders using an imaginary, jargony language?

Chris Says:
10/18/2006 3:32:03 AM

My question is about initialisms and using "a" vs. "an". For example, is it "an LAPD squad car" or "a LAPD squad car"? Might it be different for writing and speaking?

Thanks

Frank Says:
10/18/2006 3:23:47 AM

I listened with interest to your description of initialisms, and especially to the characterization of FBI as one. Also interested was my cousin, an FBI agent, who's been called a fibby for 25 years.

Grammar Girl Says:
10/17/2006 2:27:07 AM

Hi Kim,

Good catch!

I can't explain it. Everything I read said that whether or not you put periods after the letters in an acronym or initialisms is a style decision, but if I remember correctly everything I read about "i.e." and "e.g." said that you need periods after the letters. I have no recollection of ever seeing them written without periods in any reputable publication.

It's also kind of weird that they are lower case letters, since acronyms are made up of capital letters. That may be the answer: They are considered abbreviations rather than acronyms for some reason that I couldn't find. It may also still just be a style thing, and perhaps most places just adopt the style with periods.

Regardless of the reasoning, you will always be safe if you use periods after the letters because The Chicago Manual of Style puts periods after the letters.

Kim Says:
10/16/2006 9:04:08 PM

Hi Grammar Girl,

I just started listening to podcasts and yours makes me glad I did! Having just gone through the GG Marathon, though, I think I've found a small contradiction in two of the episodes. In this episode, you said that the acronyms and initialisms do not require a period after each letter. However, in episode three you made it clear that I.E. and E.G. do!

I'm just wondering if there's a special rule at work here or if it's just a matter of style.

Keep up the great work!

Cheers,
Kim

Grammar Girl Says:
10/16/2006 2:52:16 AM

Hi Scott,

I did quite a bit of research for this episode, and I never came across anything that said an acronym had to be a real word before it could be a true acronym. All the references seemed to agree that as long as the abbreviation is pronounced as a word, instead of spelling out the letters, it's an acronym.

Glad you're enjoying the show!

Scott Perez-Fox Says:
10/16/2006 2:24:25 AM

Hey Grammar Gir, great podcast! This was my first episode and loved it. Actually, I was arguing with my co-workers recently about this very topic. Except I seem to be half wrong because I thought an acronym was only a true acronym if the pronouncable word was a word to begin with.

For example, everyone uses words like LASER, RADAR, and SCUBA - but when those terms were first coined, those words had no meanings (in spite of being pronouncable). The word was born because of the term. I always thought an acronym by definition only exists if the word is a word to begin with, for example POTS to mean "plain old telephone system". Pots is obviously a real word, ROFL is not.

Any thoughts? If I am wrong, is there a term to define what I was just talking about? I look forward to more.

Grammar Girl Says:
10/14/2006 12:46:12 AM

I put it on the list of topics for future episodes!

Pam Tabor Says:
10/13/2006 6:50:55 PM

Grammar Girl

Please forgive me for using this forum to ask a question that has nothing to do with the above information - please please can you help me figure out active vs. passive voice! It has haunted me my whole academic career!!
Thank you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Grammar Girl Says:
10/13/2006 4:53:41 PM

Yes, ID is very strange. It is short for identification, so technically the "d" shouldn't be capitalized; but as you note, it always is. I haven't been able to find an answer.

Cyndy Says:
10/13/2006 4:03:41 PM

I wasn't familiar with the term initialism either.
I'm interested in your comments regarding the use of ID for identification. I have seen it defined as an initialism, but what does the D stand for? Perhaps it is an abbreviation, but if that is the case why do we spell it out?

(Arrr...these are the things that keep me up at night!)

Grammar Girl Says:
10/12/2006 5:43:51 PM

Indeed they do. It's a very common misconception that all abbreviations made up of capital letter are acronyms. My guess is that they have set up their site as an "acronym" site because nobody would ever search Google for "initialisms."

My husband and I discussed your question just yesterday. He had never heard of initialisms and was also wondering what the point is of making a distinction. I can't really answer the question, because I don't make up the words, but it seems to me that we use specific words so that we can communicate as clearly as possible. It obviously defeats the purpose if you use a word such as "initialism" and nobody knows what you mean! Nevertheless, in a perfect world people would know the difference, and you would be communicating more information with a single word when you use "initialism" or "acronym."

Cate Says:
10/12/2006 4:25:23 PM

Everyday Acronyms (see Links) contradicts your definition of acronyms vs. initialisms. Although i appreciate the distinction, why make it?

Grammar Girl Says:
10/12/2006 5:38:07 AM

Although the Merriam-Webster dictionary entry includes "acronym" as the second definition for acrostic, it seems to me that the most universal definition of acrostic is a poem or other literary work where the first letter (or letters) of each line spell out a word or message. Wikipedia's acrostic entry has some nice examples.

Roger Says:
10/12/2006 5:00:50 AM

I listened with great interest (and for the first time) to your explanation of initialisms, acronymns, and abbreviations, but was still left with the unanswered question, "what distinguishes an acrostic?" Any hints?