Re: unix acronyms -collecting a list?

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Article #4296

#4296

From: Annelise Anderson
Date: Sat, 07 Jun 1997 00:00

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In comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc Steve Peltz <peltz@jaka.ece.uiuc.edu> wrote:
> In article <5mvqtk$ml6$1@nntp.Stanford.EDU>,
> Annelise Anderson  <andrsn@andrsn.stanford.edu> wrote:
> >No, they're abbreviations.  eff-bee-eye is not a word, except in some
> >programming sense in which it has white space on either side of it.

> I'm sorry, what's wrong with pronouncing FBI as ef-bee-eye? Certainly
> a lot simpler pronounciation than some other words. Just because it is
> also the pronounciation of the individual letters of the word doesn't
> mean it isn't a word. An alternate pronounciation of FBI is "fed-ur-ul-
> byoo-row-uv-in-ves-tig-ay-shun".

Nothing is wrong with pronouncing FBI as ef-bee-eye.  Is it a word?  It's
a word in the written language, having white space around it (or ending
with a punctuation mark).  In the spoken language, it's really three
words, it seems to me.

However according to the Chicago Manual of Style it is, in fact, an
acronym, even though not a pronouncible acronym, since it is the name
of something (the Bureau) created from initials or major parts of the
full name.  So I was wrong about this.

Unix seems to have a lot of acronyms, very few of which can be
pronounced.

Annelise

> How do you pronounce "amt."? Now there's an abbreviation that is not
> an acronym. Is it still a word? "am-mut"?

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<5kd2ng$c8b$1@rzsun02.rrz.uni-hamburg.de> <5l37jg$87j$1@wuff.mayn.de> <5l7jvt$q8b$10@halon.vggas.com> <33776BE4.6883@ford.com> <337C64F0.41C6@cs.ucc.ie> <5lsbv4$id8@bmtlh10.bnr.ca> <3383FA57.4855@uab.ericsson.se> <EAMxy9.EF4@cogsci.ed.ac.uk> <3390a559.4210811@news.dircon.co.uk> <3392FE4F.1667@att.com> <5mvqtk$ml6$1@nntp.Stanford.EDU> <5n6oqu$br@vixen.cso.uiuc.edu>

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From: Annelise Anderson <andrsn@andrsn.stanford.edu>
Subject: Re: unix acronyms -collecting a list?
Date: 1997/06/07
Message-ID: <5nark0$3pt$1@nntp.Stanford.EDU>
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References: <5kd2ng$c8b$1@rzsun02.rrz.uni-hamburg.de> <5l37jg$87j$1@wuff.mayn.de> <5l7jvt$q8b$10@halon.vggas.com> <33776BE4.6883@ford.com> <337C64F0.41C6@cs.ucc.ie> <5lsbv4$id8@bmtlh10.bnr.ca> <3383FA57.4855@uab.ericsson.se> <EAMxy9.EF4@cogsci.ed.ac.uk> <3390a559.4210811@news.dircon.co.uk> <3392FE4F.1667@att.com> <5mvqtk$ml6$1@nntp.Stanford.EDU> <5n6oqu$br@vixen.cso.uiuc.edu>
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