Date: Sat, 18 Aug 2001 13:39:38 +0200 From: Rahul Siddharthan <rsidd@physics.iisc.ernet.in> To: Nik Clayton <nik@FreeBSD.ORG> Cc: Mark Ovens <marko@FreeBSD.ORG>, John Murphy <jfm@blueyonder.co.uk>, doc@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: <acronym> Message-ID: <20010818133938.A77024@lpt.ens.fr> In-Reply-To: <20010817193635.K59279@clan.nothing-going-on.org>; from nik@FreeBSD.ORG on Fri, Aug 17, 2001 at 07:36:35PM %2B0100 References: <hinont8fhal36o8pusq5c3jvc9t2thmdll@4ax.com> <20010817091230.A59279@clan.nothing-going-on.org> <20010817183259.B275@parish> <20010817193635.K59279@clan.nothing-going-on.org>
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Nik Clayton said on Aug 17, 2001 at 19:36:35: > On Fri, Aug 17, 2001 at 06:32:59PM +0100, Mark Ovens wrote: > > > An acronym is anything formed from (typically the initial) letters from > > > a phrase. > > > > ...that forms a word (either real or contrived), so BIOS and SCSI are > > acronyms, but IDE isn't (unless you pronounce it "eyed"), and neither is > > PCI, IBM, etc. > > What're things like "IDE" referred to then? > > FWIW, the DocBook definition says > > <acronym> - An *often* pronounceable word made from the initial (or > selected) letters of a name or phrase My understanding was that an "acronym" is a *word* (like laser, basic (the language), etc) made from initial letters of other words. "Fortran" would also qualify, I think. IDE, and probably BIOS (being all caps) would be abbreviations, like BBC and CNN. I don't have a dictionary handy so I can't verify it... Acronyms are also abbreviations, of course, so "abbreviation" should always be accurate, if longer. R To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-doc" in the body of the message
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