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Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.carno.net.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!munnari.OZ.AU!news.ecn.uoknor.edu!feed1.news.erols.com!cpk-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!su-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!news.bbnplanet.com!csn!nntp-xfer-1.csn.net!cbgw1.lucent.com!newshub.netnews.att.com!news From: Allen Kirby <akirby@att.com> 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 09:49:11 -0400 Organization: AT&T - ITS Production Services Lines: 18 Distribution: inet Message-ID: <339420D7.7D36@att.com> References: <337C64F0.41C6@cs.ucc.ie> <5lsbv4$id8@bmtlh10.bnr.ca> <3383FA57.4855@uab.ericsson.se> <EAMxy9.EF4@cogsci.ed.ac.uk> <3390a559.4210811@news.dircon.co.uk> <3392FE4F.1667@att.com> <3393EC39.2B86@UK.Sun.COM.PLEASE.REMOVE.THIS.TO.REPLY> Reply-To: akirby@att.com NNTP-Posting-Host: 192.20.25.* Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Mailer: Mozilla 3.0 (Win95; U) To: Tony Walton <tony.walton@UK.Sun.COM.PLEASE.REMOVE.THIS.TO.REPLY> Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au comp.unix.shell:45659 comp.os.linux.misc:178402 comp.os.linux.x:63284 alt.os.linux:21827 comp.unix.bsd.misc:3479 comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc:42179 gnu.misc.discuss:31586 comp.unix.solaris:108384 Ok, so apparently an abbreviation can come from multiple words, so FBI and MRI are also abbreviations, but that doesn't mean they aren't acronyms. An acronym is a specialized type of abbreviation, using only the first letters of each word. FBI and MRI are both words, according to the Merriam Webster definition of 'word'(http://www.m-w.com): any segment of written or printed discourse ordinarily appearing between spaces or between a space and a punctuation mark -- --- Allen Kirby AT&T ITS Production Services akirby@att.com Alpharetta, GA.