OED simply says an acronym is "A word formed from the initial letters of other words."
Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of English Usage says, "A number of commentators ... belive that acronyms can be differentiated from other abbreviations in being pronounceable as words. Dictionaries, however, do not make this distinction because writers in general do not ... [followed by four examples of unpronounceable acronyms]."
My U.S. News & World Report Style Guide does say that acronyms must be pronounceable, and otherwise they are called initialisms, but that is certainly not definitive outside of that magazine, and few people have ever heard the word "initialism."
Jim
At 23 07 04, 11:07 AM, Chris KEENAN wrote:
On Friday 23 Jul 2004 03:10, Bill Hooper wrote:
> On 2004 Jul 22 , at 9:37 PM, Bill Potts wrote:
> > P.S.I., or PSI, is not an acronym. To be an acronym, it must be
> > pronounceable; otherwise it's just an abbreviation.
>
> Potts is right. I stand corrected.
I could be pedantic, and say it's not actually an abbreviation; it's a set of
initials.
But I won't ;-)
Chris KEENAN
UK Metric Assoc.: metric.org.uk
Electrical Engineer
Industrial manufacturing manager
Salt Lake City, Utah, USA
www.qsicorp.com
