Filter Coffee #065

On Abbreviations

Dear Readers,

FC #64 on Tergiversation etc. was appreciated by many of my readers and I got some interesting comments too. M R Karthik proved to be a quick learner when he said “Without circumlocuting let me acknowledge that the article was very good and no, I am not prevaricating either, I seriously mean it!!” Thank you readers for your unwavering support.

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Abbreviations, Initialism, Numeronyms, Acronyms & Emojis

In some ways, all of us are looking to say more but write less. Are we lazy or have we been innovative in communicating? If we write a cryptic message we ought to make sure that the intended recipient gets the message. That leads us to the next question: What are we communicating and to whom are we communicating? Are we writing it out or recording it or speaking over the phone? Are they all prone to being ineffective in some way or the other?

While people are likely to chat for a long time and talk of many things relevant or irrelevant, they are unlikely to embark on writing a long letter and if they did it would be just the subject matter and nothing else. Facetime, Zoom and other virtual media have enabled people to see each other and talk shop or gossip depending on who is talking to whom. Whether it be a recorded message or a telephone conversation, the diction, the connectivity and the quality of sound may inhibit the intended communication.

Prosaic writing may involve a language gap. If you use pedantic sentences full of not-so-familiar words the reader may not comprehend. In recent times, casual writing has taken a beating thanks firstly to the advent of SMS and now WhatsApp and other similar instant messaging platforms.

Are SMS or SIM or SCUBA abbreviations, acronyms, or initialisms? Before giving out the answer let me dwell on each of these words. 

Abbreviation, though a well established English word, has its roots in Latin where breves means short or brevity. It usually is a short form of a word or phrase. Take for example the word Government, which is abbreviated to Govt. If you take the phrase ‘The State Government’ you abbreviate it to ‘State Govt’. Similar examples are Mr, Prof, etc.

Vernacular words used in English writings are also abbreviated like Smt.  An abbreviation like Dr may not reveal if he is a medical professional or a veterinarian or a PhD unless you have known that person. In India, these days, Company Secretaries and Chartered Accountants are using CS & CA as the prefix to their name. These are again abbreviations.

Interestingly we adopt a different approach when it comes to months. We abbreviate Jan, Feb, Sept, Oct, Nov and Dec, but do a proper pronunciation of March to August though I have seen people abbreviating August to Aug. In so far as the year is concerned, only Y2K has been a standout short form. But curiously it is a combination of letters and a number. It is not an abbreviation or acronym but belongs to an entirely different category called ‘numeronyms’. A word is used in conjunction with a number and when you pronounce the letter and number together it will sound like the word it stands for. You can form your own numeronyms. If someone wishes you ‘have a nice day’ you could text back U2. 

In the IT world, there is now a mention of the Y2K38 problem that is expected to occur in 2038. I am not a techie and for those who are keen to know more please go to this link.

A popular set of just numbers can also be called numeronyms. Like in our country, if you say ‘he is a 420’ you are referring to that person as a cheat since Sec 420 of the Indian penal code deals with that offence. Similarly, 911 in the US is the telephone number for emergencies. Of course, 9-11 is also used to refer to the terror attack on the twin towers.

The word Acronym is said to have been in vogue since 1943. It has its roots in Greek. Acro meaning initial and Nym meaning word. Acronyms are a form of abbreviation, but they can be pronounced like a word. Take for example SCUBA which is pronounced as such but is in fact an abbreviation of the words ‘self-contained underwater breathing apparatus’. SMS which stands for short messaging service is an abbreviation but not an acronym, whereas SIM is the abbreviated form of ‘subscriber identity module’ but qualifies for being an acronym since we pronounce it like a word. PM, FM, CM are abbreviations to denote those political offices but POTUS is an acronym for Joe Biden. One interesting reason why some of these abbreviations have become acronyms is the presence of a vowel in them. SIM is an example as compared to SMS. Similarly UNICEF, NATO, AIDS and RADAR.

Let us look at UNO, WHO, FBI, CIA, DVD, IBM, BBC, and AIR. Though they appear as abbreviations they belong to the category of ‘Initialism’ which means that the initial letter of each word is put together and pronounced one letter at a time. When you see Mr or Dr you pronounce the word they represent but when you want to say FBI or CIA, you say one letter at a time. I cannot for the love of God understand why people use HBD to wish someone a happy birthday, though I have seen people using anniv for ‘anniversary’.

So, what is COVID-19? It stands for COronaVIrus Disease and 19 refers to 2019 when it was first identified in Wuhan, China. If it had been abbreviated it would have been CVD, perhaps. Then it would have belonged to initialism. Since it is pronounced the way it is now, it qualifies to be an acronym.

Both acronyms and abbreviations are constantly evolving. When SMS was in vogue (it is now displaced by WhatsApp) people became adept at creating newer abbreviations like Gr8 for great, TTYL for talk to you later and LOL for laughing out loud, G2G for ‘got to go' and so on. If you want to know more of such abbreviations please go to this link.

In keeping with the theme, I will keep this FC shorter than usual. But I must end it with a few words on Emojis which are a product of the digital revolution and have made communication easy but they can't replace words. They are not ordinarily used to initiate a message but are more often used in response.

I also believe that there’s some escapism involved. ‘Thank you’ is virtually replaced by the namaste emoji. If someone has accomplished something we use the applause symbol. Sometimes I feel people are being indulgent and feel that they should respond and so an emoji comes in handy. But if true emotions are involved I would call the person or text him properly rather than take refuge in the symbolism of emojis. I am sure there are many who may have a different point of view and I respect that.

Dear Readers, please take good care of yourself particularly if you have started travelling.

Remember the now famous abbreviation RT-PCR which has replaced the PCR. Want to know more? Click this link.

See you next week!