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English
Etymology
From acro- (“‘tip end, beginning’”) and -onym (“‘name’”), modelled after homonym and synonym. From Ancient Greek ἄκρος (akros), “‘extremity’”) and ὄνομα (onoma), “‘name’”).
Pronunciation
Noun
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Singular acronym |
Plural acronyms |
acronym (plural acronyms)
- An abbreviation formed by (usually initial) letters taken from a word or series of words, and which is itself pronounced as a word, such as RAM, radar, or scuba; sometimes contrasted with initialism.
- A pronounceable word formed from the beginnings (letter or syllable) of other words and thus representing the phrase so formed, e.g. Benelux = the countries Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg considered as a political or economic whole.
- Any abbreviation so formed, regardless of pronunciation, such as TNT, IBM, or XML.
Usage notes
- The original definition[1] was "term for words made from the initial letters or syllables of other words", indicating that it should be pronounceable as a word, e.g. snafu, comsat.
- The third sense is often criticized by commentators who prefer the term initialism for abbreviations that are not pronounced like an ordinary word.
- Acronyms are generally written with all letters in upper case. Some acronyms are treated as words in their own right and are written in lower case (such as scuba or radar).
- In American English, the general rule is that acronyms of more than four letters are written in lower case (e.g., laser) while those with four or fewer letters are written in all caps (e.g., NATO). (In European usage the latter example is sometimes written "Nato.")
- Older usage required that each letter be followed by a full stop (period). Current usage tends to omit full stops.
- In recent years, the use of mixed capitalization in acronyms has become more common in two circumstances. The first occurs when the words contain articles that are not capitalized when spelled out in title case - for instance, Field of Regard initialized as "FoR." (This can be helpful in preventing confusion among acronyms spelled the same way to represent different meanings.) The other circumstance occurs when the writer is attempting to make an acronym pronounceable when it otherwise would not be by including more than just initial letters - for instance, "RaZR".
- There have also appeared acronyms which for convenience sake are pronounced contrary to their spelling - what might be called "dyslexic" acronyms - spoken as if the letters were in a different order than they actually are, to make pronunciation easier.
References
- Notes:
- ^ American Speech Vol. 18, No. 2. (Apr., 1943), page 142
See also
- Category:Acronyms
- Category:Abbreviations, acronyms and initialisms - a list of all abbreviated forms
- acronymic
- acronymous
- initialism
- mnemonic
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