Re: Abbrevations and Acronyms

At 4:19 AM -0400 7/10/99 [dmy], Christian Ottosson wrote about [Subject]
Re: Abbrevations and Acronyms:
 >So far I've understand it too. But I think the information differ
 >wether acronyms are initial letters which can be pronounciated as a
 >word (eg. SETI, NASA) or all inital letters -- even those which can't
 >be pronounciated as the abbrevation (eg. HTTP, WWW).
 >
 >Is "HTTP" an acronym?
 >
 >--
 >Christian Ottosson

This is way off-topic, but I find the subject *very* intriguing...
The word ACRONYM isn't either in the OED or in the Italian dictionary I
normally use. However, I found the following definition in "The Must Words"
(by Craig & Peter Norback, Angus & Robertson 1979):

       acronym n., word formed by first or key letters in compound name
       (e.g., The acronym for overdose is OD).

Which makes me think, wouldn't it be better if the "standard" definition of
new computer "standards" followed some sort of "standard" rules - i.e.,
using words that *are* in every dictionary?

Marina Tadiello

Received on Thursday, 7 October 1999 08:01:32 UTC