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Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.carno.net.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!munnari.OZ.AU!news.uwa.edu.au!disco.iinet.net.au!news1.mpcs.com!news.radio.cz!europa.clark.net!howland.erols.net!newsfeed.internetmci.com!HEAnet!eolas.ucc.ie!usenet From: Peter Flynn <silmaril@m-net.arbornet.org> 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: Sun, 15 Jun 1997 01:03:36 +0100 Organization: SilmarilConsultants Lines: 24 Distribution: inet Message-ID: <33A33158.4A1C@m-net.arbornet.org> References: <337C64F0.41C6@cs.ucc.ie> <5lsbv4$id8@bmtlh10.bnr.ca> <3383FA57.4855@uab.ericsson.se> <EAMxy9.EF4@cogsci.ed.ac.uk> <A01469D243A414B4.60EFD3C313DDF166.4A538EC778681837@library-proxy.airnews.net> <3396D1DD.6495@qanv.pbz> <3398849a.13740572@news.dircon.co.uk> Reply-To: pflynn@m-net.arbornet.org NNTP-Posting-Host: samhain Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Mailer: Mozilla 3.0Gold (Win95; I) Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au comp.unix.shell:46184 comp.os.linux.misc:180838 comp.os.linux.x:64473 alt.os.linux:22291 comp.unix.bsd.misc:3577 comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc:43006 gnu.misc.discuss:31813 comp.unix.solaris:109658 Mike Ellis wrote: > > Michael Sierchio <xhqmh@qanv.pbz> wrote: > > >Mike Ellis wrote: > > > >> 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. This is simply untrue, it's a local (US) aberration. An acronym is a word formed from the heads of other words. It says nothing at all about whether or not you can pronounce it. For some weird reason the US (started in the Military, I'm told) got it into their heads that an acronym had to be pronounceable, possibly because it makes sense to do so in the army (?). But to extrapolate from that and impose that rule on the rest of the world is not meaningful. The notes at http://www.ucc.ie/acronyms make this clear. ///Peter -- Peter Flynn