That's just the point. I live in a world of acronyms and in my lifetime, I've seen the creation of some very popular acronyms. Like MRE - meal, ready to eat, MOUT - military operations in urban terrain, CCO - close combat optic. You see, just a few short years ago these lovable acronyms would've raised everyone's eyebrows, like 'WTF is that?' But now they've all become part of the Army lexicon.

 

Initialism
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

An initialism is an abbreviation formed by using the first letters, or initials, of a series of words, for example "BBC", or "IBM". The term initialism is often used by those who make a sharp distinction between an initialism and an acronym; they reserve the term acronym for cases when the letters form a pronounceable word, like "NATO" or "AIDS", and use the term initialism when they do not. (Thus, by this definition, BBC ("Bee Bee See") is an initialism, while NATO ("Naytow") is an acronym.) Others do not make this distinction, and use the terms interchangeably (though the term acronym is used much more frequently in this case).

In some cases, an initialism has been turned into a name because the meaning of the initials has been superseded. The YMCA is now just a name and is no longer officially short for Young Men's Christian Association. Likewise the letters making of the name of the SAT college entrance test, that is, "the College Boards", no longer officially stand for anything.


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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.

 

I was making a sharp distinction I'm old school because I'm old and think I got it wrong on a test way back when and it stuck in my mind...

 

Peaty, you got screwed by someone's subjective interpretation. That's the story of my life, someone else's opinion doesn't coincide with mine. Your wikipedia (by the way, does it have a definition of wiki wiki? ) tells me that it can go either way, depending on who's interpreting.

Sort've like, what's the definition of abortion if you go to Hampton College vs if you go to the Seminary?

My definition above is from dictionary.com.

 

I can pronounce anything if given the time to mull it over in my mush-head. You should hear me say WTLW out loud. It's funny. That would make that an acronym, eh?
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Nah, I think the criterion in that case would be popular usage. I think there are still many who don't know what that is. YGWIS?

 

IGYP.
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BIDGYP.

 

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http://www.google.com/search?q=IGYP

Bastards! This is killing me.

 

I Get You, Pat.


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i get your point?

 

BDTTS

 

LOL!
But I Don't Get You, Pat.

 

Ha ha ha. I sort've figured yours would mean something like that, YGWIS (You get what I'm saying?)(I know you know what I meant)