Acronyms (Was: mouse updates)

[SERRE Jean-Christophe]

Hmph, sorry for having somehow started that out-of-topic thread...

My original posting:
>
> BTW and FYI, a more efficient search IMHO is using AV Advanced Search:
>   http://www.altavista.com/cgi-bin/query?pg=aq
> And enter a boolean query summing up what you know and what you lookup:
>   (btw ~ "by the way") & fyi & imho & (acronym|acronyms)

Deryk Barker noted:
>
> I hate to be pedantic (actually, people who know me will dispute
> this), but you are referring to abbreviations, not acronyms. An
> acronym, according to the dictionary, is an abbreviation which forms a
> prnouncable word. WYSIWYG would be an acronym, BTW isn't.

For the definition, you're perfectly right. OTOH, the goal here wasn't
to give a definition, but to find an information. Since it's a very
common mistake to name all those abbreviations "acronyms", and since one
can assume that most relevant online documents will mention "acronym"
anyway, I found it reasonable for efficiency to include it in the query
string...

Daniel Hildebrandt replied to Deryk Barker:
>
> Acronym: a word (as NATO, radar, or snafu) ... [8<]
>
> As per the merriam webster definition, "by the way" would classify as a
> compound term.  BTW, being formed from the first letters of each of the
> succesive parts of said compound term, is an acronym.

I have to back up Deryk on the definition: As he said, an abbreviation
qualifies as an acronym iff it is reasonably prononcable, as a genuine
word is. (For its originating-tongue speakers -- a Czech may object
about BTW's unprononcability :-)

Thus BTW is NOT an acronym -- while "jeep" is one, while not truly an
abbreviation, because it's a prononcable shortcut made up from G.P.
(General Purpose vehicle).

I think this prononcability criterion is implicit in the definition you
quoted when it says it is "a *word* ...", not just a bunch of letters,
but better or specialized dictionnaries will define that criterion
explicitely.

*Hoping having closed that thread*

-- 
JCS - Jean-Christophe SERRE - INGECOM France - +33 (0)1.48.34.12.34

Computer: A device designed to speed and automate errors
Hardware: The parts of a computer which can be kicked
Keyboard: An instrument used for entering errors into a system
Language: A system of organizing and defining error messages

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