Re: unix acronyms -collecting a list?

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Article #4301

#4301

From: Annelise Anderson
Date: Tue, 03 Jun 1997 00:00

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In comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc Allen Kirby <akirby@att.com> wrote:
> Mike Ellis wrote:
> <snip>
> > Sorry to spoil the fun but these are not acronyms. An acronym is an
> > abbreviation which can be pronounced as if it were a word. How on
> > earth does one pronounce tcsh ?  Most TLAs (three letter acronyms) are
> > not TLAs at all. In fact TLA is not a TLA itself.

> Wrong.  Acronyms are words created from the first letters of other
> words, such as:

> FBI,MRI,IBM,FDA,FAA,AT&T 

> Some are pronouncable, like RADAR, but it's the exception.  If what you
> say is correct, none of the words above would be acronyms.  And they're
> certainly not abbreviations, so what are they?

> They're acronyms.

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.

The abbreviation for the United Nations is UN, pronouced you-enn;
it's not pronounced "un" as in "undecided."  Therefore UN is an
abbreviation, not an acronym.  tar is an acronym.

If you want to call .cshrc "c-shark", then I suppose it's half an
acronym.... :)

Annelise
> -- 
> ---
> Allen Kirby			AT&T ITS Production Services
> akirby@att.com			Alpharetta, GA.

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From: Annelise Anderson <andrsn@andrsn.stanford.edu>
Subject: Re: unix acronyms -collecting a list?
Date: 1997/06/03
Message-ID: <5mvqtk$ml6$1@nntp.Stanford.EDU>
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