Acronym
An acronym is an abbreviation of a phrase that usually consists of the initial letter of each word in all caps with no punctuation.
This article is about linguistic abbreviation. For the HTML element, see ACRONYM tag. For the political advocacy group, see Acronym (organization).
For some, initialism,[1] or alphabetism, connotes this general meaning, and acronym is a subset—pronounced as a word rather than as letters. In this sense, NASA /ˈnæsə/ is an acronym but USA /juːɛsˈeɪ/ is not.[2][3]
The broader sense of acronym, ignoring pronunciation, is its original meaning[4] and in common use.[5] Dictionary and style-guide editors dispute whether the term acronym can be legitimately applied to abbreviations which are not pronounced as words, nor do they agree on acronym spacing, casing, and punctuation.
The phrase that the acronym stands for is called its expansion. The meaning of an acronym includes both its expansion and the meaning of its expansion.
Etymology[edit]
The word acronym is formed from the Greek roots akro-, meaning 'height, summit, or tip', and -nym, 'name'.[6] This neoclassical compound appears to have originated in German, with attestations for the German form Akronym appearing as early as 1921.[7] Citations in English date to a 1940 translation of a novel by the German writer Lion Feuchtwanger.[8]
Nomenclature[edit]
In general, abbreviation, which includes acronym, is any shortened form of a word or phrase. This includes letters removed from the end of a word such as prof. for professor, letters removed from the middle of a word such as rd. for road and a contraction such as I'm for I am.
An acronym in its general sense, a.k.a. initialism, is the first letter of each word of a phrase such as IRS for Internal Revenue Service which is pronounced as each letter since it's unpronounceable as a word. In its narrow sense, acronym is an initialism that is pronounced as a word – contains sufficient vowels to be pronounceable as a word. For example, NASA, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, is generally pronounced as a word.
Less significant words such as in, of, and the are usually dropped (NYT for The New York Times, DMV for Department of Motor Vehicles), but not always (DOJ for Department of Justice).
Sometimes the first letter of a morpheme is used instead of a first letter of a word. For example AIDS, acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, uses the d from the word immuno-deficiency.[9]
Sometimes it uses a letter from the middle or end of a word, or from only a few key words in a long phrase.
Occasionally, some letter other than the first is chosen, most often when the pronunciation of the name of the letter coincides with the pronunciation of the beginning of the word (example: BX for base exchange).
An acronym that is pronounced as a word, such as NASA, is sometimes called a word acronym. This term is over qualified to those who use acronym to mean pronounced as a word, but is useful for those who consider acronym and initialism to be synonymous.
Some acronyms are partially pronounced as a word and otherwise pronounced as letters. For example, JPEG (/ˈdʒeɪpɛɡ/ JAY-peg) and MS-DOS (/ˌɛmɛsˈdɒs/ em-ess-DOSS).
Some abbreviations are a mixture of syllabic abbreviation and acronym. These are usually pronounced as words and considered to be acronyms overall. For example, radar for radio detection and ranging, consisting of syllabic abbreviation ra for radio and acronym dar for detection and ranging..
Some acronyms are pronounced as letters or as a word based on speaker preference or context. For example, URL (uniform resource locator) and IRA (individual retirement account) are pronounced as letters or as a word: /ɜːrl/ URL and /ˈaɪrə/ EYE-rə, respectively. When IRA is used to mean Irish Republican Army it is always pronounced as letters. Speakers may use different pronunciation as a way to disambiguate overloaded abbreviations.
Pronounceability controversy[edit]
It is an unsettled question in English lexicography and style guides whether it is legitimate to use the word acronym to describe forms that use initials but are not pronounced as a word. While there is plenty of evidence that acronym is used widely in this way, some sources do not acknowledge this usage, reserving the term acronym only for forms pronounced as a word, and using initialism or abbreviation for those that are not. Some sources acknowledge the usage, but vary in whether they criticize or forbid it, allow it without comment, or explicitly advocate it.
Some mainstream English dictionaries from across the English-speaking world affirm a sense of acronym which does not require being pronounced as a word. American English dictionaries such as Merriam-Webster,[10] Dictionary.com's Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary[11] and the American Heritage Dictionary[12] as well as the British Oxford English Dictionary[4] and the Australian Macquarie Dictionary[13] all include a sense in their entries for acronym equating it with initialism, although The American Heritage Dictionary criticizes it with the label "usage problem".[12] However, many English language dictionaries, such as the Collins COBUILD Advanced Dictionary,[14] Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary,[15] Macmillan Dictionary,[16] Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English,[17] New Oxford American Dictionary,[18] Webster's New World Dictionary,[19] and Lexico from Oxford University Press[20] do not acknowledge such a sense.
Most of the dictionary entries and style guide recommendations regarding the term acronym through the twentieth century did not explicitly acknowledge or support the expansive sense. The Merriam–Webster's Dictionary of English Usage from 1994 is one of the earliest publications to advocate for the expansive sense,[21] and all the major dictionary editions that include a sense of acronym equating it with initialism were first published in the twenty-first century. The trend among dictionary editors appears to be towards including a sense defining acronym as initialism: the Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary added such a sense in its 11th edition in 2003,[22][23] and both the Oxford English Dictionary[24][4] and The American Heritage Dictionary[25][12] added such senses in their 2011 editions. The 1989 edition of the Oxford English Dictionary only included the exclusive sense for acronym and its earliest citation was from 1943.[24] In early December 2010, Duke University researcher Stephen Goranson published a citation for acronym to the American Dialect Society e-mail discussion list which refers to PGN being pronounced "pee-gee-enn", antedating English language usage of the word to 1940.[26] Linguist Ben Zimmer then mentioned this citation in his December 16, 2010 "On Language" column about acronyms in The New York Times Magazine.[27] By 2011, the publication of the 3rd edition of the Oxford English Dictionary added the expansive sense to its entry for acronym and included the 1940 citation.[4] As the Oxford English Dictionary structures the senses in order of chronological development,[28] it now gives the "initialism" sense first.
English language usage and style guides which have entries for acronym generally criticize the usage that refers to forms that are not pronounceable words. Fowler's Dictionary of Modern English Usage says that acronym "denotes abbreviations formed from initial letters of other words and pronounced as a single word, such as NATO (as distinct from B-B-C)" but adds later "In everyday use, acronym is often applied to abbreviations that are technically initialisms, since they are pronounced as separate letters."[29] The Chicago Manual of Style acknowledges the complexity ("Furthermore, an acronym and initialism are occasionally combined (JPEG), and the line between initialism and acronym is not always clear") but still defines the terms as mutually exclusive.[30] Other guides outright deny any legitimacy to the usage: Bryson's Dictionary of Troublesome Words says "Abbreviations that are not pronounced as words (IBM, ABC, NFL) are not acronyms; they are just abbreviations."[31] Garner's Modern American Usage says "An acronym is made from the first letters or parts of a compound term. It's read or spoken as a single word, not letter by letter."[32] The New York Times Manual of Style and Usage says "Unless pronounced as a word, an abbreviation is not an acronym."[33]
In contrast, some style guides do support it, whether explicitly or implicitly. The 1994 edition of Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of English Usage defends the usage on the basis of a claim that dictionaries do not make a distinction.[21] The BuzzFeed style guide describes CBS and PBS as "acronyms ending in S".[34]
Changes to (or wordplay on) the expanded meaning[edit]
Pseudo-acronyms and orphan initialisms[edit]
Some apparent acronyms or other abbreviations do not stand for anything and cannot be expanded to some meaning. Such pseudo-acronyms may be pronunciation-based, such as "BBQ" (bee-bee-cue), for "barbecue", and "K9" (kay-nine) for "canine". Pseudo-acronyms also frequently develop as "orphan initialisms"; an existing acronym is redefined as a non-acronymous name, severing its link to its previous meaning.[72][73] For example, the letters of the "SAT", a US college entrance test originally dubbed "Scholastic Aptitude Test", no longer officially stand for anything.[74][75] The US-based abortion-rights organization "NARAL" is another example of this; in that case, the organization changed its name three times, with the long-form of the name always corresponding to the letters "NARAL", before eventually opting to simply be known by the short-form, without being connected to a long-form.
This is common with companies that want to retain brand recognition while moving away from an outdated image: American Telephone and Telegraph became AT&T[72] and British Petroleum became BP.[73][76] Russia Today has rebranded itself as RT. American Movie Classics has simply rebranded itself as AMC. Genzyme Transgenics Corporation became GTC Biotherapeutics, Inc.; The Learning Channel became TLC; MTV dropped the name Music Television out of its brand; and American District Telegraph became simply known as ADT. "Kentucky Fried Chicken" went partway, re-branding itself with its initialism "KFC" to de-emphasize the role of frying in the preparation of its signature dishes, although in this case, "KFC" remains a true initialism which still officially stands for "Kentucky Fried Chicken".[77][a] The East Coast Hockey League became the ECHL when it expanded to include cities in the western United States prior to the 2003–2004 season.
Pseudo-acronyms may have advantages in international markets: for example, some national affiliates of International Business Machines are legally incorporated with "IBM" in their names (for example, IBM Canada) to avoid translating the full name into local languages. Likewise, UBS is the name of the merged Union Bank of Switzerland and Swiss Bank Corporation,[78] and HSBC has replaced the long name Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation. Some companies which have a name giving a clear indication of their place of origin will choose to use acronyms when expanding to foreign markets: for example, Toronto-Dominion Bank continues to operate under the full name in Canada, but its U.S. subsidiary is known as TD Bank, just as Royal Bank of Canada used its full name in Canada (a constitutional monarchy), but its U.S. subsidiary is called RBC Bank. The India-based JSW Group of companies is another example of the original name (Jindal South West Group) being re-branded into a pseudo-acronym while expanding into other geographical areas in and outside of India.