Table of types of acronym and initialism, with examples.
The Oxford English Dictionary uses "initialism" or "acronym" as appropriate in its etymologies, except that B.V.D. is "(biːviːˈdiː) [Acronym f. the initial letters of the name of its manufacturers, Bradley, Voorhees & Day: the widely-held belief that B.V.D. stood for ‘babies' ventilated diapers’ is mistaken.] "
Source data from mainspace article
edit- pronounced as a word or names of letters, depending on speaker or context:
- IRA: ([ˈaɪrə] or [aɪ.ɑr.eɪ])
- When used for Irish Republican Army, always pronounced as letters
- When used for Individual Retirement Account, can be pronounced as letters or as a word
- ((LOL)) LaughOutLoud
- FAQ: ([fæk] or [ɛf.eɪ.kju]) frequently asked questions
- SAT: ([sæt] or [ɛs.eɪ.ti]) Scholastic Achievement (or Aptitude) Test(s)
- SQL: ([sikwəɫ] or [ɛs.kɪu.ɛl]) Structured Query Language
- IRA: ([ˈaɪrə] or [aɪ.ɑr.eɪ])
- pronounced as a combination of names of letters and a word:
- pronounced only as the names of letters
- pronounced as the names of letters that also sound like words
- YRUU: ([waɪ.ɑr.ju.ju]) Young Religious Unitarian Universalists
- pronounced as the names of letters to distinguish it from the word the abbreviation forms
- OIL: Oil India Limited, not a recursive acronym
- pronounced as the names of letters but with a shortcut
- shortcut incorporated into name
- recursive acronyms, in which the abbreviation itself is the expansion of one initial (particularly enjoyed by the open-source community)
- pseudo-acronyms are used because, when pronounced as intended, they resemble the sounds of other words:
- multidimentional acronyms:
- GTK+: GIMP Tool Kit, i.e. GNU Image Manipulation Program Tool Kit, i.e., GNU's Not Unix Image Manipulation Program Tool Kit
Trivia
edit- XSS vs CSRF "Cross" as X or C (though XSRF also found)
- F1 vs FOCA "One" as 1 or O
- CXO = Chief X Officer
Table
edite.g.[1] | desc[2] | W[3] | M[4] | S[5] | LS[6] | E[7] | M[8] |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
deejay, emcee, okay, Esso, Seabee | respelled initialism | ||||||
jeep, Beeb, Veep | clipped initialism | ||||||
Énarque, Cégétiste, Defeño, cubewano | respelled as morpheme | ||||||
FNMA, FTSE, SCSI, WR[e]NS | acronym with inserted vowels | ||||||
FLWOR | acronym with reordered letters "flower" | ||||||
MUSL | "MUlti-State Lottery association" → [2-1 1 0] | ||||||
ARISF | "Association of IOC Recognised International Sports Federations" where IOC not coded. | ||||||
laser | "by" uncoded; origin less known, lowercase | ||||||
NATO | sound of "A" different from component | ||||||
numbers as initials | |||||||
scuba | hyphenation in "self-contained" | ||||||
Amphetamine | et should be eth; amine coded entire | ||||||
paraben | syllables of single word | ||||||
Gestapo Benelux | not camel case; syllabic | ||||||
Interpol | syllabic; not all words coded | ||||||
radar | almost initial-only; "and" included | ||||||
BMX,XA,X/F, XPM, XSS | X=trans/cross: rebus | ||||||
SXSW | X="by" (multiplication sign rebus) | ||||||
BMO, MPEG, PDFORRA, RGDATA | part initialism, part acronym | ||||||
CSRF | part initialism, part acronym-with-inserted-vowels | ||||||
SFX | part initialism, part phonetic | ||||||
BBQ | part initialism, part phonetic; rebus influences new spelling; letter per syllable | ||||||
IRA | initialism in English, acronym in French | ||||||
RAF | formally initialism, affectionately acronym | ||||||
AWOL | originally initialism, became acronym | ||||||
AK PARTİ | rare 2-letter acronym | ||||||
asap, URL | usually initialism, occasionally acronym | ||||||
SQL | sometimes acronym-w-inserted-vowels, sometimes initialism | ||||||
XML | X often used for eX- words in initialisms, not acronyms | ||||||
quango | retains the u for pronunciation | ||||||
NASDAQ | final Q often allowed | ||||||
Qantas, HIQA | rare Q = [kw] where not followed by u (also A for "and" in QANTAS) | ||||||
AT&T, T&GWU | ampersand for And | ||||||
XANES | X genuine initial (X-ray) | ||||||
OS X, SSPX | X as roman numeral | ||||||
TNT | morphemes not words | ||||||
agitprop | 2-syllable+1-syllable | ||||||
SoHo | Camelcase | ||||||
BCBG | becebege | ||||||
PJs | pajamas: per syllable, non-morphemic | ||||||
TB | I guess originally Tubercle bacillus, now mainly tuberculosis even though the B is non-morphemic; bacillus now called Mycobacterium tuberculosis abbreviated MTB | ||||||
ID, [on the] QT/q.t. | noun: identification or identification document? verb: identify? ; q[uie]t!? | ||||||
EPO, OB/GYN | initialism for arbitrary subset of letters of word. | ||||||
c'mon, guys!
| |||||||
Scarp | Small Companies Administration Process -- is the r from administRation or pRocess? | ||||||
BSc, UVA | alphabetism as w1l1-w2l1-w2l2 | ||||||
e.g | macaronic backronym
| ||||||
Arcelor Conmebol | start-mid-end blend | ||||||
TAC (various), GoF (var) | Initial of short function word (a/the/and/of) retained | ||||||
IN2P3 | "Institut national de physique nucléaire et de physique des particules" — I guess INPNPP →1 INNPPP →2 IN2P3, wherein the →1 is dodgy. | ||||||
P3P | Note not PPPP or P4 but rather P3P. Why not P2P2? | ||||||
AJAX | asynchronous JavaScript and XML -- "and" included; XML double acronym | ||||||
A2/AD | anti-access/area-denial [weapon] | ||||||
C4ISR | command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance | ||||||
Tri-Ess ("Society for the Second Self", 3S) | respelled — is that a pun? |