Return to BSD News archive
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!news.Stanford.EDU!nntp.Stanford.EDU!andrsn.stanford.edu!andrsn From: Annelise Anderson <andrsn@andrsn.stanford.edu> 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: 7 Jun 1997 05:29:36 GMT Organization: Stanford University Lines: 29 Distribution: inet Message-ID: <5nark0$3pt$1@nntp.Stanford.EDU> References: <5kd2ng$c8b$1@rzsun02.rrz.uni-hamburg.de> <5l37jg$87j$1@wuff.mayn.de> <5l7jvt$q8b$10@halon.vggas.com> <33776BE4.6883@ford.com> <337C64F0.41C6@cs.ucc.ie> <5lsbv4$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> <5mvqtk$ml6$1@nntp.Stanford.EDU> <5n6oqu$br@vixen.cso.uiuc.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: andrsn.stanford.edu X-Newsreader: TIN [UNIX 1.3 unoff BETA release 961126] Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au comp.unix.shell:45799 comp.os.linux.misc:179260 comp.os.linux.x:63716 alt.os.linux:21967 comp.unix.bsd.misc:3521 comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc:42547 gnu.misc.discuss:31680 comp.unix.solaris:108901 In comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc Steve Peltz <peltz@jaka.ece.uiuc.edu> wrote: > In article <5mvqtk$ml6$1@nntp.Stanford.EDU>, > Annelise Anderson <andrsn@andrsn.stanford.edu> wrote: > >No, they're abbreviations. eff-bee-eye is not a word, except in some > >programming sense in which it has white space on either side of it. > I'm sorry, what's wrong with pronouncing FBI as ef-bee-eye? Certainly > a lot simpler pronounciation than some other words. Just because it is > also the pronounciation of the individual letters of the word doesn't > mean it isn't a word. An alternate pronounciation of FBI is "fed-ur-ul- > byoo-row-uv-in-ves-tig-ay-shun". Nothing is wrong with pronouncing FBI as ef-bee-eye. Is it a word? It's a word in the written language, having white space around it (or ending with a punctuation mark). In the spoken language, it's really three words, it seems to me. However according to the Chicago Manual of Style it is, in fact, an acronym, even though not a pronouncible acronym, since it is the name of something (the Bureau) created from initials or major parts of the full name. So I was wrong about this. Unix seems to have a lot of acronyms, very few of which can be pronounced. Annelise > How do you pronounce "amt."? Now there's an abbreviation that is not > an acronym. Is it still a word? "am-mut"?