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FAX
This is *supposed to be an acronym for what?
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veteran
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I didn't realize it was an acronym at all. I thought it was a shortening of "fascimile."
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Quote:
I didn't realize it was an acronym at all. I thought it was a shortening of "fascimile."
Exactly my point. So why is it so often capitalized?
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Carpal Tunnel
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>So why is it so often capitalized?
simple thickheadedness?!
neither M-W nor AHD show capitalization for "fax"; YCLIU.
Last edited by tsuwm; 04/20/2006 8:55 PM.
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Quote:
simple thickheadedness?!
... by people confused by FAQs!?
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Carpal Tunnel
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Quote:
... by people confused by FAQs!?
I think it predates FAQs. It just looks like it should be an acronym. Besides, there's no X in Facsimile.
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Pooh-Bah
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I think it's just put in block caps because of where it usually goes, above the address of a letter: VIA AIRMAIL; BY HAND; VIA REA (well, maybe not REA). and FAX is just better than FACS: it's a syllable, and not a syllable and part of another -- if ya want a reason.
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Quote:
Quote:
... by people confused by FAQs!?
I think it predates FAQs.
What always astonishes me is that the fax predates the phone. Demned clever, them cesmes.
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... by people confused by FAQs!?
I think it predates FAQs. It just looks like it should be an acronym. Besides, there's no X in Facsimile.
These are the jokes, folks (such as they are). FAQs is often pronounced facks just as fax is.
Facs doesn't look like any English word I can think of except sacs which is plural. However, box, fox, sax, Vax, etc. are singular, thus fax follows the spelling "rule" for a singular noun that ends in the "ks" sound. None of which explains why someone would want to use it in all caps.
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Facsimile (from fac simile 'make similar') is cited from the mid-17th century in the OED1. It meant a copy or to make a copy. Alexander Bain received the first patent for a facsimile machine in 1843. FAQ (for frequently asked questions) is a Usenet term and dates from the '80s.
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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Pooh-Bah
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Quote:
Quote:
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... by people confused by FAQs!?
I think it predates FAQs. It just looks like it should be an acronym. Besides, there's no X in Facsimile.
These are the jokes, folks (such as they are). FAQs is often pronounced facks just as fax is.
Facs doesn't look like any English word I can think of except sacs which is plural. However, box, fox, sax, Vax, etc. are singular, thus fax follows the spelling "rule" for a singular noun that ends in the "ks" sound. None of which explains why someone would want to use it in all caps.
No, but Inselpeter did; didn't you, inselpeter?
inselpeter: well, I, uh . . .
Oh, spit it out, you old gas bag. You did and you know it.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Quote:
FAX
This is *supposed to be an acronym for what?
Facsimile Allocated X(trans)mission.
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TEd
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formerly known as etaoin...
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old hand
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Just the ... ma'am. Please, one more clue 
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TEd
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formerly known as etaoin...
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TEd
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formerly known as etaoin...
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formerly known as etaoin...
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Even if not the case, it may be more tolerable to consider it derived from 'faximile', as CONX could possibly be created from 'connexion'. At least FAX is far less irksome than "shopaholic" in today's word, just another knee-jerk term invented without logic. One might wonder where the 'hol' in it comes from and decide that it should mean "a drunk who shops too much".
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The hol came from alcoholic. It's common enough for words at times to be reanalysed morphologically, and then one of the morphemes to be reused. Cf. -gate as a suffix, the n from the following word being fused to the preceding indefinite article, (e.g., an adder, an apron), the non-etymological d in admiral or h in author. It's a common enough process. You might as well ask where the al in alcohol came from. It's the definite article in Arabic, not a part of the word the Spanish borrowed. Yet, no grammar mavens rail against the al in alcohol and say, like the hoi in hoi polloi, that one shouldn't say the alcohol.
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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...not to mention "the La Brea tar pit" in California...
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Pooh-Bah
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Not to mention "the The New York Times," he said hoitilly.
Listen, do you suppose the 'gate' morpheme(?) has help or harmed business at the (hideous) Water?
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Quote:
Not to mention "the The New York Times," he said hoitilly.
Where have you heard that?
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Quote:
You might as well ask where the al in alcohol came from. It's the definite article in Arabic, not a part of the word the Spanish borrowed. Yet, no grammar mavens rail against the al in alcohol and say, like the hoi in hoi polloi, that one shouldn't say the alcohol.
We borrowed the whole thing, article and all. Not only for this one, but for a couple thousand others too... I guess this could be because in Arabic script the article is attached to the word, so it all looks like one unit.
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Carpal Tunnel
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But when we are naming baseball players we on occasion break the al off. Just ask that wonderful base runner Al Kaline. Too bad he wasn't a pitcher or catcher, because then he might have been part of a battery.
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Here is an excerpt from an obscure work (not quoted because it is original): “Workaholic” is another prize winner. Where does the ‘hol’ part come in, does anyone else wonder? Should not this piece of buffoon lingo really apply to a drunk who works too much? And wouldn’t that same (un)reasoning make someone with ESP a Psychoholic?
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...And wouldn’t that same (un)reasoning make someone with ESP a Psychoholic?
Only if your definition of an alcoholic is someone with alchohol.
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Aramis, if this is a serious question (I can't tell), the etymology for workaholic is [f. WORK n., after alcoholic.]
the phrase "after ~" is used lexicographically to indicate that the word was not formed following "classical" rules, but instead parrots the form of some other word.
there are many examples of this is English.
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Carpal Tunnel
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It still weirds me out to see that little tilde-lookin' thing, but at least now I can usually figure out what it's referring to.
But what does a rebours mean?
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Pooh-Bah
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Oh, I think I used it here, a few years ago. But this is an interesting discussion. No more quips from me.
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Ah ha; I found two book listings: Against the Grain (A Rebours) and Against Nature : A Rebours, so I'll take it that it means going against something that's been stated.
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Is it not? Perhaps suggesting a recovering one? It just seems the offerings to justify such fatuous terms as "shopaholic" are a collection of other wrong things. And anything like 'workic' would not be suitable to those enamored of their own voices, like acronym babblers who are compelled to spout appalling things like "UPC code". Why not 'work addict', (but NOT 'workheroinaddict')?
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Not so much a serious question as a cynical misanthropic diatribe. Such fatuous, knee-jerk constructions appear to be a quest for syllables to suit the long-winded. They run in a similar pack with 'orientate' and 'irregardless', for spouters of blather geysers that cannot be content to speak any short term such as ATM or PIN. 
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> spouters of blather geysers
isn't that redundant?
formerly known as etaoin...
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Quote:
Not so much a serious question as a cynical misanthropic diatribe. Such fatuous, knee-jerk constructions appear to be a quest for syllables to suit the long-winded. They run in a similar pack with 'orientate' and 'irregardless', for spouters of blather geysers that cannot be content to speak any short term such as ATM or PIN.
PIN can be ambiguous so the redundancy inherent in PIN number can aid communication.
You can say what you want about orientate but the fact remains that orient is a verbed noun and orientate isn't.
Last edited by Faldage; 04/28/2006 9:31 PM.
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… one shouldn't say the alcohol.
Why not? Personally, I just drink it. And frequently.
But seriously, folks, 'member me? I just dropped in for another look-see, and found that my last posting had been almost four years ago--and a bit dramatic it was, as I recall. But things have obviously changed here, and I will now keep looking in--and maybe contributing. This has been prompted by my receiving a lovely email from Jacqui (a.k.a. Jackie, the well known Carpal Tunnel. Yes, Jackie, I will indeed respond soon. Good to see so many of the old names still here and going strong. Not sure about the formatting of all this stuff--it's different now. Let's hope it's OK. Sorry about the excessive space I've used up for no particular reason, but it's good to be back again.
How do I put a signature here? Good grief!
:cool lusy
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Boy, I stuffed that up, didn't I? I'll do better next time
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