On 11 May 2007, at 10:55:14, Mike at Green-Beast.com wrote:
Of course I cannot effectively support this by looking it up on the
web
because the lines on this have been blurred significantly over time
so the
dictionaries are of little help.
The OED seems pretty clear on the issue:
abbreviation, noun:
a shortened form of a word or phrase
<http://www.askoxford.com/concise_oed/abbreviation>
acronym, noun:
a word formed from the initial letters of other words (e.g.
laser, Aids)
<http://www.askoxford.com/concise_oed/acronym>
initialism, noun:
an abbreviation consisting of initial letters pronounced
separately (e.g. BBC)
<http://www.askoxford.com/concise_oed/initialism>
Note that, according to these definitions, an acronym is not
considered to be an abbreviation at all - it is considered to be a
word in its own right, which justifies the existence of the two
separate tags.
Regards,
Nick.
--
Nick Fitzsimons
http://www.nickfitz.co.uk/
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