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Acronym.
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Acronym
An acronym (Greek ακρον, akron, "tip" + ονυμα, onyma, "name") is an abbreviation formed from the initial letters of words. Depending on how many of the constituent words begin with vowels and the phonotactics of the language an acronym exists in, acronyms can be pronounced as a word, as a series of the names of the letters, or some combination of the two. Sometimes acronyms have idiosyncratic pronunciations, like NAACP, which is pronounced "N double A C P".
Acronyms often occur in jargon or as names of organizations because they often serve as abbreviations of long terms that are frequently referenced, so a shortened form is desirable. Cynics have quipped that acronyms are used to obfuscate.
Traditionally, abbreviations use a period (full stop) to mark the part that was deleted. In the case of acronyms, each letter is its own abbreviation, and in theory should get its own period. This usage is becoming less common as the presence of all capital letters is sufficient to indicate the word is an abbreviation; nevertheless some influential usage guides still insist on the many-periods treatment, such as the one used by the New York Times, but others---for example at the BBC---no longer require this. Some acronyms undergo assimilation into ordinary words: often they are written in lower case, and eventually it is widely forgotten that the word was derived from the initials of others: scuba and laser, for instance. The term anacronym has been coined as a combination of the words "anachronism" and "acronym" to describe acronyms whose original meaning is forgotten.
There is debate over whether the word acronym can be applied to any set of initials. Some people insist an acronym is only a set of initials which is pronounceable as a word. Some dictionary definitions can be interpreted to support this view. Under this view, sets of initials like "BBC" and "IBM" are initialisms and not acronyms. On the other hand, under the restrictive definition of 'acronym' there is no English word to describe all strings of initials that are used in place of the full words. For many people, the word acronym is used for all such sets of initials regardless of whether they are pronounced as a word or as the names of the letters in sequence.
Sometimes non-initial letters, and the initials of short function words (such as "and", "or", "of", or "to") are included in the acronym to make it pronounceable, in contradiction to the normal rule for abbreviation. Additionally, abbreviations like "Interpol" and "Gestapo" that consist mostly of non-initial letters of constituent words are often called acronyms, although some people insist they are properly called portmanteaus.
The plurals of acronyms (where relevant--there are many lasers, but only one NATO) are formed in the same way as the plural of other English words: that is, by simply appending an s. Thus, "CDs", not "CD's".
Examples of acronyms
- Acronyms pronounced as words:
- SAM: Surface-to-Air Missile
- NATO: North Atlantic Treaty Organization
- AIDS: Acquired ImmunoDeficiency Syndrome
- laser: light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation
- scuba: self-contained underwater breathing apparatus
- Acronyms pronounced as letters (initialisms):
- DNA: DeoxyriboNucleic Acid
- DNS: Domain Name System
- CCITT: Comité Consultatif International Téléphonique et Télégraphique
- BBC British Broadcasting Corporation
- EDTA Ethylene Diamine Tetraacetic Acid
- IBM International Business Machines
- Acronyms pronounced as a combination of both:
- C-SPAN: (SEA-span) Cable Satellite Public Affairs Network
- OPEC: (OH-pec) Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries
- JPEG: (JAY-peg) Joint Photographic Experts Group
- IUPAC: (AYE-YOU-pac) International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry
- UEFA: (You-EE-fa or You-AY-fa) Union of European Football Associations
- Acronyms including non-initial letters (portmanteaus):
- Interpol: International Criminal Police Organization
- Gestapo: Geheime Staatspolizei ("secret state police")
- radar: radio detection and ranging
- CONMEBOL: Confederación Sudamericana de Fútbol (South American Football Confederation)
See also
External links
The above article is adapted from from Wikipedia All Wikipedia article text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License
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