* Not all combinations of letters are acronyms
In a recent newsletter, we asked the question “Who’s minding the acronym store?” The major point there was that our industry has a most confusing habit of reusing the same combinations of letters for totally different concepts.
You’ll note our careful use of “combinations of letters” as opposed to “acronyms” because, as our colleague, Ray Horak, author of Webster’s New World Telecom Dictionary, and others so aptly pointed out, not all combinations of letters are acronyms.
For that reason, and for your reading pleasure, we’d like to share Ray’s comments with you. He wrote: “Note, however, that FUBAR and MAC are acronyms while ATM, MPLS and SLA acronyms are initialisms. The following definitions from my book might help a bit:
“Abbreviation: A shortened form of a word or phrase. P-phone, for example, is an abbreviation of Proprietary phone. Acronyms, contractions, and initialisms are special forms of abbreviations comprising the initial letters or other parts of several words that constitute a term.
“Acronym: A pronounceable word formed of the initial letters or other parts of several words. An acronym generally comprises all upper case letters. SONET, for example, is the acronym for Synchronous Optical NETwork, a North American standard for fiber optic transmission systems. SONET became internationalized as SDH, an unpronounceable initialism for Synchronous Digital Hierarchy. Acronyms occasionally comprise all lower case letters. For example, bit is the acronym for binary digit, which is the basic unit of information in a binary numbering system. Bit also is a word unto itself, and with multiple meanings, including a small piece of something. Acronyms sometimes comprise both upper case and lower case letters. Sesame, for example, is the acronym for Secure European Systems for Applications in a Multivendor Environment.”
[We’ll note here that in an upcoming newsletter we’ll be featuring an increasingly important acronym for the WAN, SCADA.]
“Anacronym (anachronism acronym): A portmanteau of anachronism and acronym that describes an acronym or initialism that has been used so long and become so ingrained in common language that its original spelled-out meaning is unknown to many, if not most. As examples, consider ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange), radar (radio detecting and ranging), SCSI (Small Computer System Interface), scuba (self-contained underwater breathing apparatus), and sonar (sound navigation and ranging).
[Note that in the article title we added an alternate spelling to anacronym by referring to it as an anachronym, with the “chron” emphasizing the time element. We’ve noted for years that one of the coolest parts of being a writer/analyst is having free rein to make up new words.]
“Backronym (back acronym): The treatment of a word as an acronym even though it is not. For example, ping is a utility used to test a path from one host computer to another across an IP-based network in what is essentially a command to echo the packet from the remote host computer back to the originating host. Ping is a word, not an acronym. However, Dr. David L. Mills reverse-engineered ping into an acronym for packet Internet groper and a great many people believe that was the original meaning. It was not.”
[Again, inserting our two-cents worth, we loved finding in wikipedia that “It has been suggested that “wiki” means “What I Know Is.” However, this is a backronym.”]
“CamelCase: The convention in which a compound word, acronym, or phrase is spelled using medial capitals. CamelCase is used in a number of protocols, including eXtensible Markup Language (XML). ARCnet and WikiWiki are examples of CamelCase. The term is so named as the bumps of the medial capital letters are reminiscent of the humps of a camel.“Contraction: The shortening of a word or phrase by omitting letters or syllables. In the English language, a contraction generally, but not always, marks the omitted letters or syllables with an apostrophe or a period. Telco, for example, is a contraction of telephone company. Doesn’t is a contraction of does not. Mr. is a contraction of mister, a title of courtesy for a man. Mrs. is a contraction of mistress, a title of courtesy for a married or widowed woman. Once upon a civilized time, we used the title of courtesy Miss to denote a girl or unmarried woman. The feminist movement of the 1970s forced a change to Ms., which makes no distinction in a woman’s marital status. Now we frequently delete such titles, altogether, leaving those who don’t (do not) know the person to guess at both their (his/her) gender and marital status, which is all quite silly, even if it is PC (politically correct). (Note: PC is an initialism.)“Initialism: An unpronounceable abbreviation comprising the initial letters of a term and commonly used in place of that term. Each letter of an initialism is pronounced independently. Fox example, SDH is the initialism for Synchronous Digital Hierarchy. An acronym is a pronounceable word formed from the initials or other parts of several words that comprise a term. SONET, for example, is the acronym for Synchronous Optical NETwork, the North American standard for fiber optic transmission systems that later became internationalized as SDH. Acronyms and initialisms generally comprise all upper case letters, although they sometimes are all lower case, or a mixture of upper and lower case. Examples include SONET, SDH, bit (binary digit), bps (bits per second), QoS (Quality of Service), and Sesame (Secure European Systems for Applications in a Multivendor Environment). See also abbreviation, acronym, and contraction.
“Portmanteau 1. An old type of leather suitcase that usually opened into two compartments. The word originates from the French portemanteau, from porter (to carry) and manteau (cloak), and inspired Lewis Carroll’s use of the word with a new meaning. 2. A combination word, or blend, that combines the sounds and meanings of two words. Modem, for example, is a portmanteau that combines the words modulate and demodulate, describing a device that performs both functions. Similarly, a codec both codes and decodes data, and a transceiver is both a transmitter and receiver. Lewis Carroll coined this usage of the word in his famous book, Through the Looking Glass, and What Alice Found There (1871), which is more commonly known as Alice in Wonderland. In the book, Humpty Dumpty explains to Alice the construct and meaning of words from Jabberwocky, telling her that ‘Well, slithy means lithe and slimy. You see, it’s like a portmanteau – there are two meanings packed up into one word.’”
Thanks so much to Ray both for the education and for providing us with a smile.
