This thread deserves to die, I suspect indeed that it were better stillborn.
Acronyms are context-sensitive. No one can appropriate 'USS' as an acronym
for a single phrase.
Even word denotations are context-sensitive. The word 'pen' can denote (1)
a writing instrument, (2) an enclosure (for animals, babies, or prisoners),
(3) a female swan, (4) a slang variant of 'penitentiary' (with semantic
contamination from (2)), etc., etc.
All that anyone can assert responsibly is that in some context he thinks
first of some particular denotation of a term t or an acronym A. Sometimes
many others will agree with him, but widespread disagreement with his
judgment establishes ipso facto that t or A is ambiguous.
John Gilmore
Ashland, MA 01721-1817
USA
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