Is there a directory of abbreviations available anywhere...

[ApK]

Originally Posted by journeybear

BTW, for the OP and all, wikipedia (of course) has a list of a gazillion of acronyms (which these really are, not abbreviations). When I saw how many they had, I began to LMAO ...

They are all abbreviations since they are short ways to express longer phrases.
They are most often initialisms since they are abbreviations formed by taking the initial letters of each word in the phrase.
And although 'acronym' has also become a synonym for 'initialism', unless you have a good way to pronounce "YMMV" or "BTW" as a word in standard English, I would not encourage the ambiguous and imprecise use of that term.

[ApK]

Originally Posted by John Flynn

When I was in the Navy, we had an official publication, "The Dictionary of Naval Abbreviations." The designation of the publication, shown in bold letters on the cover, I am not making this up, was "DICNAVAB," and the abbreviation DICNAVAB was listed and defined in the publication itself. The Navy was full of ironies! Maybe someone here needs to create a DICMANAB!

Yup, the Navy, and the DOD in general is really big on those sort of abbreviations.

Remember the episode of MASH where Hawkeye called the General a "NINCOMPAC"

But I must be missing the irony....of course the abbreviation for a dictionary name would be in the dictionary of abbreviations. It would be ironic if it WASN'T there.
After all, you'd expect "dictionary" to be defined in a dictionary, wouldn't you?

IT2 ApK, USNR

[Cathal Whelehan]

Originally Posted by ApK

They are all abbreviations since they are short ways to express longer phrases.
They are most often initialisms since they are abbreviations formed by taking the initial letters of each word in the phrase.
And although 'acronym' has also become a synonym for 'initialism', unless you have a good way to pronounce "YMMV" or "BTW" as a word in standard English, I would not encourage the ambiguous and imprecise use of that term.

(strokes chin thoughtfully).. I love posts like that - better than discovery channel!

I've never heard the term initialism used before so I'll look it up later. Thanks!

[journeybear]

Originally Posted by ApK

... although 'acronym' has also become a synonym for 'initialism', unless you have a good way to pronounce "YMMV" or "BTW" as a word in standard English, I would not encourage the ambiguous and imprecise use of that term.

I sit corrected. You are quite correct, sir. I have never heard nor seen that term before, but it's true - that is what is often meant when people say "acronym." They are not interchangeable; an acronym is a type of initialism. According to the MWD, an acronym is a back-formed word composed of an initialism, one which can actually be pronounced and thus used as a word. Their examples include "radar" and "laser," and may as well have included "scuba" and "fubar." People don't pronounce "BFF" "bff," they pronounce it "bee-eff-eff."

Just when I thought we had reached the limits of noodliness, you come up with that. I'm not complaining, or even serious, merely observing, even a bit envious. After all, my wikipedia user page has the following motto: "Furthering the cause of truth and accuracy, one noodly concern at a time." I'm all for that.

[ApK]

If only I could figure out a way to make a living at stuff like this.

[journeybear]

ATTT! YKWIM? ... ... ...