[thechat] Not acronyms, not abbreviations, but. . . ?

[John Handelaar]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: thechat-bounces at lists.evolt.org
> [mailto:thechat-bounces at lists.evolt.org]On Behalf Of seb potter
> Sent: 19 May 2003 18:15
> To: The evolt.org social mailing list
> Subject: Re: [thechat] Not acronyms, not abbreviations, but. . . ?
> 
> PDA and ATM are initialisms, as they use the first letter of each word 
> and are not, in the normal sense, pronouncable as words. 

Abbreviations do not have to be pronounceable as words, they
just have to be shorter than the original.  These ones may be
'initialisms', to use some new word which had no meaning of
any kind when either of us was at school, Seb, but they're
sure as hell also abbreviations.

> Acronyms and Initialisms are universally uppercase, and contain no 
> punctuation, with the exception of those used for country names 
> ("U.S.A") 

However, there is no justification for either 

a)  Mixing and matching like you just indirectly suggested ["PDAs 
    in the U.S.A." is just wrong - pick one style or the other], or

b)  Missing out the final full stop in 'U.S.A.'

>:-)

</anal>

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John Handelaar

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