----- Original Message -----
Sent: Monday, 2004-11-22 16:10
Subject: [USMA:31497] acronyms,
etc.
I realize that this isn't metric, but it's a
revisit of a debate that occurred on the list some time ago. I was perusing
the Chicago Manual of Style Web site, and came across this definition
of "acronym," and also a discussion of the distinctions to be made among other
forms of initialing:
Q. I had always understood
the term acronym to mean an abbreviation that spells a word, such as
snafu (per Webster�s), but in your manual [the fourteenth
edition, 1993] the two terms are used interchangeably. Can you tell me where
you get your definition of acronym?
A. Since 1993, we�ve
realized that we needed to be more precise. In the fifteenth edition,
therefore, we distinguish between acronyms, initialisms, and contractions, all
under the umbrella of abbreviation, as follows: acronym refers
only to terms based on the initial letters of their various elements and read
as single words (NATO, AIDS); initialism to terms read as a series of
letters (BBC, ATM); and contraction to abbreviations that include the
first and last letters of the full word (Mr., amt.). These distinctions can
also be found in the multivolume work Acronyms, Initialisms, and
Abbreviations Dictionary, edited by Mary Rose Bonk and published in its
twenty-seventh edition in 2000 by Gale Research Incorporated.
Paul Trusten, R.Ph.
Editor, "Metric
Today"
3609 Caldera Blvd., Apt. 122
Midland TX 79707-2872
USA
