Acronyms Et Al. (was: Last Call: Instructions to Request for Comments (RFC) Authors to BCP)

["David J. Aronson" <dja2003 at hotpop.com>]

kireeti at juniper.net wrote:

> Finally, last para of sectin 4.5, "Mnemonics appearing in the Abstract"
> and 'meaning of the mnemonics "IP" or "TCP" or "MIB"' -- you mean
> acronym, not mnemonic.

Gibson, Mark replied:

> Um, you mean abbreviation, not acronym.  No such English word as ip, tcp 
> of mib as far as I know :)

Definitions of these terms vary.  The American Heritage dictionary 
(http://www.bartleby.com/61/) uses them the way I do: if it's pronounced 
as a word, it's an acronym, but if it's pronounced as letters, it's an 
*initialism* (which doesn't even appear in the Cambridge dictionary).  I 
have heard MIB done both ways, and even SNMP (with an implied "i" in the 
middle).

At first, this may seem to be a US/UK difference, but Merriam-Webster 
(http://www.m-w.com/) says an acronym is "a word (as NATO, radar, or 
snafu) formed from the initial letter or letters of each of the 
successive parts or major parts of a compound term".  However, they say 
an initialism is a *type of* acronym, one formed from initial letters of 
words.  SAT (Scholastic Aptitude Test) is one, but not PCB 
(polychlorinated biphenyl), since the C does not start its word.  Note 
that neither of them is pronounced as a word!  Their "Word for the Wise" 
script from April 11, 2001 (http://www.m-w.com/wftw/01apr/041101.htm) 
uses these examples, and was a response to someone apparently using the 
AH definitions.  It does not have separate terms for acronyms 
*pronounced* as a word or as letters.

Mike Bartman says an acronym is "A Capitalized Representation Of Names 
You Memorize".  B-)

All three dictionaries agree, however, that a mnemonic is something to 
help you remember something, such as "Roy G. Biv" for the colors of the 
rainbow, or "Badly Burnt Resistors On Ground Bus Void General Warranty" 
for resistor colors.  At least Kireeti is correct in that regard.

Anybody got an OED?  Perhaps we need an Informational RFC on this 
important issue!  B-)

--
David J. Aronson, Software Engineer for hire in Washington DC area.
See http://destined.to/program/ for online resume, references, etc.