- From: Thomas Dowling <tdowling@ohiolink.edu>
- Date: Mon, 2 Feb 1998 08:10:25 -0500
- To: <w3c-wai-ig@w3.org>
Being new to the list, I don't want to cover ground that has been gone over before, but thought I'd chip in another perspective on abbreviations and acronyms. In the library world, there's a standard reference work called the _Acronyms, Abbreviations, and Initialisms Dictionary_. As I recall its introductory materials, it sets out definitions in which acronyms and initialisms are both subsets of the larger body of abbreviations; as has been pointed out, acronyms are pronounced as words (e.g. NASA and UNICEF) and are created from the [usually] first letters of the words in a phrase. Initialism is the term given to first-letter abbreviations that are pronouned letter by letter (IBM and FBI). The superset of abbreviations includes shortenings that are typically pronounced as the word or phrase they come from (the state of Wisc., Mr. Bob Smith, Jr., etc.); codes that may have little relation to the word they stand for (travelers in the states are familiar with ORD as the code for Chicago O'Hare Airport, the National Weather Service code for Columbus, Ohio is CMH and so on); abbreviations of phrases in one language used for words in another (English language use of 2 lb. 6 oz.) and other miscellany. This makes it seem to me that an ACRONYM element is superfluous with a more general ABBR element, and incomplete without it. Thomas Dowling OhioLINK - Ohio Library and Information Network tdowling@ohiolink.edu
Received on Monday, 2 February 1998 08:11:35 UTC