Re^2: Determining if a word is really an abbreviation

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Re^3: Determining if a word is really an abbreviation by hardburn (Abbot) on Jun 15, 2004 at 20:00 UTC
The dictionary definition (external link) of "abbreviate" means simply "to make shorter". From that definition, I would say that an acronym is a specific type of abbreviation. The dictionary defintion (another external link) of "acronym" could be interpreted to mean what you say, but I don't think it has to be. The defintion given above says nothing about being able to pronounce the series of letters, just that it is a word formed by the first letters of the word series (or parts of the word series), which would include "IBM". I typicaly think of an abbreviation as a shortening of a single word, such as "Inc." ---- send money to your kernel via the boot loader.. This and more wisdom available from Markov Hardburn.	[reply]
Re^3: Determining if a word is really an abbreviation by Jasper (Chaplain) on Jun 16, 2004 at 09:25 UTC
I'm backing Halley on this one, and strongly disagreeing with hardburn and dragonchild.	[reply]
Re^4: Determining if a word is really an abbreviation by Anonymous Monk on Jun 16, 2004 at 11:05 UTC
Well, you're all wrong. An acronym is an abbreviation (synonyms). Its just concidence that in practice most words which get called "acronyms" are words formed from the initial letters of a multi-word name. It doesn't stop them from being abbrev.	[reply]
Re^5: Determining if a word is really an abbreviation by Jasper (Chaplain) on Jun 16, 2004 at 12:18 UTC
All camels are ugly; that doesn't make you a camel.	[reply]