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From: Tony Walton <tony.walton@UK.Sun.COM.PLEASE.REMOVE.THIS.TO.REPLY>
Newsgroups: comp.unix.shell,comp.os.linux.misc,comp.os.linux.x,alt.os.linux,comp.unix.bsd.misc,comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc,gnu.misc.discuss,comp.unix.solaris
Subject: Re: unix acronyms -collecting a list?
Date: Tue, 03 Jun 1997 11:04:41 +0100
Organization: SunService UK
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Allen Kirby wrote:
>
> Mike Ellis wrote:
> <snip>
> > Sorry to spoil the fun but these are not acronyms. An acronym is an
> > abbreviation which can be pronounced as if it were a word.
{snip}
>
> Wrong. Acronyms are words created from the first letters of other
> words, such as:
>
> FBI,MRI,IBM,FDA,FAA,AT&T
Wrong. Acronyms are *words* created from the first letters of other
words such as BASIC or UNCLE (as in "The Man From UNCLE").
See the dictionary (online Webster at
http://c.gp.cs.cmu.edu:5103/prog/webster ) which says:
acronym n: a word formed from the initial letters of a multi-word name
"A WORD formed from...". IMHO "MRI" and "AT&T" are hardly "words" -
"FAA" might qualify as an acronym if you were a sheep.
> If what you say is correct, none of the words above would be acronyms.
It is, and they aren't.
> And they're
> certainly not abbreviations,
Why not?
--
Tony