Is there an archive for acronyms used in many posts? I have no idea what some of them mean. wwh

I think we don't regularly use as many acronyms as most discussion forums -- this is a Good Thing, IMHO*.
two, which are apposite for this venue:
YCLIU - you could look it up
YART - yet another rehashed topic

*in my humble opinion

"at the very least, it will take you into some fascinating backwaters and byways"

such lovely imagery.... of course, the alligators have sharp teeth; i spent a good hour digging through the murky waters the other day trying to figure out where one of the threads was coming from. gee, i need another internet addiction like a fish needs a bicycle... oopsie, wrong thread.

and wwf, you're in good company (well, you're in company, at least... the rest is pretty subjective). i had to ask faldage what an AYLEUR was

bridget=)

Ipsa scientia potestas est ~Bacon

Thanks, Max, tsuwm,& Bridget96: I'm willing to RTFM if I can find it. I have looked at Internet offerings, but you creative creatures have your own crop. I was hoping to avoid alienating of troy by asking her what IITYBMAD (should have used Edit,Copy, Edit Paste on that one)meant.
Tell me, what did the face that launched a thousand ships mean by that? I was hoping some else would give a clue.

If I tell you will you buy me a drink?

I am beginning to regret ever telling you guys this one. I can see that it is going to cut down on my free drinks
wow

I'll buy, but you'll need a long straw.

Sorry to take such rampant advantage of it, but I fell for it hard the first time, so I thought I'd try to recoup a jot or two of pride.

We had a thread on acronyms vs. abbreviations (also called initialisms, I've learned) a bit ago. Is there a specific term for collections of letters such as this one, which tend to be specific to the internet, which actually stand for a sentence (as in YCLIU) or a phrase (YART)? They seem somehow different from terms like scuba (acronym) or FBI (initialism).

Dear wow: You are tantalizing me also, which is unkind, even to a senile citizen who drinks only Adam's ale.

Ah, yes, the old Tantalus .. for the youngsters out there it was generally a pair of glass decanters for liquor set in a (usually) silver case which was locked but left the liquor visible. Quite the little tantalizer for the thirsty.
Now wwh, you wrote You are tantalizing me also, which is unkind, even to a senile citizen
Is this a challenge to my position as the oldest person on the board? En garde!
wow

Forget about wow sweetie, if I tell you will you buy ME a drink?

Poster: belMarduk
Subject: Re: FAWSIITYWYBMAD

Forget about wow sweetie..

Have a little respect for these hard earned white hairs, if you please ... you naughty girl
wow

White hairs but very good eyes. No sooner is it written than spotted aye, just egging wwh on a little bit wow .

Hey I saw him first, I'm buying HIM a drink!

Alienate of troy? how could you do that?
IITYBMAD thread was a continuation of an other thread that had over 100 entries-- and was getting so slow to load--
But we are fun bunch-- I'm sure occationaly, somebody post something, that is a bit of a barb-- but the first time it happened to me, i also got a private message from the same person, and they explained it was in fun, and they hoped i wasn't hurt-- but i wasn't--they needn't have worried.. I saw it was a clever bit-- even if the point poked me a bit.

Jackie is a good "tone" police. She always hit the right tone-- sometime I end up sounding harsh-- i need to learn to use [rant] [/rant]-- or to use the emoticons-- which i am not really fond of... and if you go off "tone" she will gently point it out-- and smooth things over--(Thanks Jackie-- I keep reading your post to see how you do it-- I am aware you do-- but i still haven't mastered it-- some might say i haven't even been to successful in my feeble attempts!)

your use of RTFM reminds me-- i had a boss who used a old DOS application. He gave me a project, and told me to use the app. I was fine till i made a typo-- and didn't know how to undo a file i had already saved--
I peppered him with a few questions-- and suggested if i could RTFM i would be a lot happy with using the app.

He asked what does R T F M mean? I replied Read The Manual-- and almost immediately he asked " What about the F what does the F stand for?" -- the words where no sooner out of his mouth, when he realize what the F stood for-- and he blushed-- and walked away!

Thanks, Helen!
And, I had forgotten what RTFM stood for, myself.
Frickin' memory!

My problem is I can read the fookin' manual till my eyes are bloodshot and it still doesn't make sense most of the time... but that's a rant I have been on before. Your pardons asked.
wow

My dear, sainted Godmother - may her memory last a thousand ages - used the initialism MYODB quite a bit. When asked what it meant she always told the questioner to mind his(her) own damned business.

Please don't tell me "MYODB"! IMHO it's important that I learn hits ASAP or else I will be SOL.

HMTDWHTTY???!!!

HMTDWHTTY???!!!

Okay, I got that one (I think), but what's the M word, please?

Dear Hyla: I don't see much difference between acronym and initialization. What would you call "Fed" for Greenspan's outfit, or "FannieMae" for another federal entity? I used to see "GeeHaw" for a (?) federal insurance program, explication for which I can no longer recall.

I also am unhappy with seeing acronyms given as the way they are pronounced as above. At least nobody tried to pronounce IITYWYBMAD

What's the M word please?

If I'm interpreting it right, the M word is "many."

Dear Hyla: I don't see much difference between acronym and initialization.

Check out the thread on "overuse of acronyms" (let's see if I can link to another thread - never done this before...)

http://wordsmith.org/board/showflat.pl?Cat=&Board=words&Number=13315&page=3&view=collapsed&sb=5

to hyla (and others); [since shona never(?) got around to imparting his secret on this] you can chop off everything after the post number to shorten these links, thus aleviating the screen width problem. thus:

http://wordsmith.org/board/showflat.pl?Cat=&Board=words&Number=13315

Just have to insert my two cents.

I always thought that true acronyms had to be pronounceable words: so NASA qualifies, but ROTFL doesn't, unless you really say 'rotfull' to yourself while reading

But those strings-of-initials-that-confer-meaning deserve a better name than initializations, don't they?

>But those strings-of-initials-that-confer-meaning deserve a better name than initializations, don't they?

IMNSHO, no.

IMNSHO, acronyms should be helpful, not impediments to comprehension. And they should not be weapons used by veterans to intimidate,torment,bewilder,and put down the uninitiate. Fighting off temptation to neologise one to get even. wwh

wwh, as a VUD (veteran under duress), I have to say that you have been irony-deaf in responding as you did - and I even added a wink!! oh, and I agree that acronyms should be helpful, if they're used at all, and I thank you for the opportunity to expressly state that I *really dislike initializations such as IITYWYBMAD!
so there.

The trouble is, I suppose, that abbrevs and initials were originally used by Victorian clerks to make life easier for copying letters (before the days of carbon paper or typewriters) They were never intended to be used in speech, and the word written "Xmas" was supposed (and still is!!) to be pronounced Christmas.

Goodness knows why we have carried clerkly expediency into verbal laziness. Maybe because we are lazy!!

The creation of acronyms and initializations from existing phrases is OK by me. It is the forced creation of phrases to create the acronyms which irritates me. Around here, grassroots organizations will name themselves the most cumbersome things, if the first initial of each word in the title makes up some word. Argh.

At the risk of fomenting YARTism, I'd add the following to the discussion. After the thread a bit ago on acronyms, I felt like there was pretty solid consensus about the meaning of the word (i.e. scuba and laser qualify, PC doesn't). This link doesn't completely shoot that down, but it leaves it more open than I'd hoped:

http://www.randomhouse.com/wotd/index.pperl?date=19980825

I guess we have to consider ourselves "non-specialists," per this piece, so the meaning I like seems to hold.

regarding the Maven's take on acronyms: you'll notice that this particular column is unsigned; it's from the period when Jesse Sheidlower was the sole contributor to this feature, and this response is a typically well-crafted one. I miss Jesse's contributions -- he has gone on to become "Principal Editor of the North American Editorial Unit of the Oxford English Dictionary". [his characterization]

We use it often but does anyone have history on the acronym "OK?"
I was told a tale but doubt it is the real story.
wow

Webster's and American Heritage say it is an abbreviation of "oll korrect," but I'm sure I've read some etymological works which dispute this origin.

here's what the Mavens had to say (about this initialism) not so long ago:

http://www.randomhouse.com/wotd/index.pperl?date=19991020

p.s. - this exegesis also shows the *ridiculous extremes to which initialization can be (has been) taken.

*IMNSHO

By golly you have done it again, tsuwm, with the OK link. Not only a lot of history but the tale told me by my Dad (a newspaperman) is the version mentioned, first, from the now defunct Boston Post.
Thank you
wow

Soon I'll stop raising this point, I promise, but wouldn't OK only be an acronym if we pronounced it "awk"?

here's what the Mavens had to say (about this initialism)
wouldn't OK only be an acronym if we pronounced it "awk"?

hyla, I only quote myself to reinforce this point.

tsuwm wrote: hyla, I only quote myself to reinforce this point.

I think I was writing my post while you were posting yours, which has caused me a bit of confusion. Someone (perhaps wow?) called it an acronym, I started to reply, got distracted, and a few minutes later finished posting. In any case, we're in agreement. I think. About something.

Is there a specific term for collections of letters such as this one, which tend to be specific to the internet, which actually stand for a sentence (as in YCLIU) or a phrase (YART)?


Macronym?

Dear Goatboy: When I started this thread back in January, I despised acronyms, and I despise them now even more. Over fifty years ago there was an excuse for using acronyms, because for instance in Ham Radio it took up to seven keystrokes to produce a single letter. Now with word processors acronyms are a stupid annoyance. When I come to a monstrosity like the one in the subject line, I refuse to waste my time on it, and conclude that the sender was sufficiently arrogantly inconsiderate that I make no attempt to read his message. F word him or her.

Agreed, Bill. When those "in the know" speak in acronym, they leave others "in the dark".
Thank you, goatboy. If you hadn't brought this thread up to current date, I'd have never found it, and would be tearing out my limited hair trying to decipher these darn acronyms. (I'm losing enough sleep anyway over "abceghilnoprtuy", but that's another thread.)

EDIT, in recognition of Sparteye's note below:
I clearly mispoke when refering to "these darn acronyms".
The techically correct phrase is "these F__ acronyms".
Enough acrimony.

So, can one letter constitute an acronym?

Dear wow: I repent my venom for that particular one, which I had forgotten was yours. But the very fact that I forget them so easily is the thing that makes them drive me nuts. I hate it inagazines too, when they use them in the first paragraph, and five or six paragraphs later I have having to go back to first paragraph and spend more time than it is worth to find the lousy acronym. I wish I were capable of buying you a drink.

When those "in the know" speak in acronym, they leave others "in the dark"

And there, perfesser, in a nutshell you have half the magic of language: for anyone still naive enough to believe this is a medium of communication, I would respectfully point out that exactly half of language effects are designed to define ourselves and therefore by implication define the outsiders. U and non-U, in a thousand tribal contexts! Communication in neat and continual apposition to obfuscation! Yah gotta just learn to roll with the punches, an' keep on laughin, guys! This is a secret code we're using, and my version (or idiolect, as was noted the other day) does not ever correspond exactly to yours...
speshully damerkins

And the bdelygmia content of many acronyms is far too high.

When I come to a monstrosity like the one in the subject line, I refuse to waste my time on it

Which was, in my first exposure to it, simply a bar joke. Its self referentiality can hardly be considered any attempt to exclude anyone from meaningful discourse. It was meant as an attempt to put lecherous sailors in their place relative to the hot barmaids. I am reminded of an attempt by a lecherous sailor to gain the good graces of a hot barmaid by presenting her with a card that read, "If You Want To Go To Bed With Me, Smile And Give This Card Back To Me; If You Don't, Tear It In Two And Throw It Away." The card was made of a material that was impossible (or so the lecherous sailor thought) to tear. The hot barmaid looked at the card, tore it in two and threw it away. She knew the trick of nicking it with a fingernail before attempting to tear it.

I imagine you have all noticed that government and other bureaucratic types are, of all people, the most fond of speaking in acronym. Worse yet, they are addicted to the constant use of abbreviations, form numbers, grade/position designators, etc. instead of using real words. While I'm willing to believe that a good bit of the time it's just an unconscious, although deplorable, habit picked up from being immersed in such a milieu, I also suspect that there are plenty of times when this is a code designed to keep outsiders from understanding what is being said. What is any normal person to make of something like "Reimbursement to GS13s or higher is made on WW55 or BA22-8 supported by dec from indig supp."

Reimbursement to GS13s or higher is made on WW55 or BA22-8 supported by dec from indig supp

Would we understand the expansion any better?

Possiblly. The Plain English Campaign over this side of the pond is having a few notable victories. Do you have a similar movement where you-all are?

The Plain English Campaign over this side of the pond is having a few notable victories.

Plain English? Here? Surely you jest.

Plain English? Here? Surely you jest.

Indeed. If Plain English were to catch on, how could lawyers ever make a living?

If Plain English were to catch on, how could lawyers ever make a living?

The lawyers among us excepted, of course.

Yes, Max, I think you followed the English model on this - ours too is drafted with admirable clarity in exactly the terminology familiar to the average reading public in the UK

http://www.yahgottabejokin-wedonthaveone.co.uk

Having just re-read Nineteen Eighty-Four for the nth time, I can't resist the urge to mention newspeak. Even though it does not employ acronyms, and it's purpose was (satirically) to make language and communication easier, it was still as painful to read Byb's post.

GS13s or higher would insp bgb the dirops wrfl.