Re: unix acronyms -collecting a list?

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Article #4359

#4359

From: Tony Walton
Date: Tue, 03 Jun 1997 00:00

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Allen Kirby 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. 
{snip}
> 
> Wrong.  Acronyms are words created from the first letters of other
> words, such as:
> 
> FBI,MRI,IBM,FDA,FAA,AT&T

Wrong.  Acronyms are *words* created from the first letters of other
words such as BASIC or UNCLE (as in "The Man From UNCLE").

See the dictionary (online Webster at
http://c.gp.cs.cmu.edu:5103/prog/webster ) which says:

acronym n: a word formed from the initial letters of a multi-word name

"A WORD formed from...".  IMHO "MRI" and "AT&T" are hardly "words" -
"FAA" might qualify as an acronym if you were a sheep.

> If what you say is correct, none of the words above would be acronyms.

It is, and they aren't.

>   And they're
> certainly not abbreviations, 

Why not?

-- 
Tony

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From: Tony Walton <tony.walton@UK.Sun.COM.PLEASE.REMOVE.THIS.TO.REPLY>
Subject: Re: unix acronyms -collecting a list?
Date: 1997/06/03
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