[thelist] Database design question

[fstorr]

Hi all

I'm still fairly new to database design.  I'm putting a simple one
together for a business "dictionary of terms" and just need
clarification on whether my design is going to be efficient enough.  I'm
thinking I need three tables:

1: The main term searched for, and a full version of the term if it's an
ancronym

2: A foreign key referencing table 1, a definition of the term, any
saliant links, the department that uses the term (referencing table 3)

3: A list of the various business departments to be used as a foreign
key for table 2.

The reason I've split the main term from it's definition is that some
acronyms can obviously stand for many things (ICS can, in my case, stand
for Institute Of Customer Service, or Internal Customer Service).

Does this seem the right way to do it?  A colleague at work has said
that it would be better to combine table's 1 and 2, but I'm not
convinced...

Regards

F