----- 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
