Re: An Acronym really? Maybe not...

Hehe whatis.com says this about acronyms: http://whatis.com/definition/0,,sid9_gci211518,00.html Summing up: - An abbreviation is a shortening of a word or a phrase. - An acronym is an abbreviation that forms a word. - An initialism is an abbreviation that uses the first letter of each word in the phrase (thus, some but not all initialisms are acronyms). So according to this, PHP is actually an initialism, and pefectly not an acronym or not an abbreviation ;) Here is how dictionary.com defines initialisms: http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=initialism This seems to be perfectly fitting PHP. And as we are not correct, it would be nice from us to change the 'acronym' status to 'initialism' status I think :) Here is another interesting thing about initialisms: http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Initialism | An initialism is an abbreviation formed by using the | first letters, or initials, of a series of words, for | example BBC or IBM. This is called an initialism when | the letters are sounded out, as in the previous | example, but it is called an acronym when the | abbreviation forms a pronouncable word, such as NATO | or AIDS. However, this distinction is often lost in | common speech; most people call both types of | abbreviations acronyms. So PHP is grammaticaly an intialism, but in common speach, it can be called an acronym... English is a foreign language to me, and it is sometimes funny to find out such things ;)) Goba > Hopefully you don't mean for us to say that PHP isn't an acronym, it's > more of an 'abbreviation' :) Come on, we could get technical about a > lot of things in this world, but it's a lot easier to just keep it the > way it is, even if slightly wrong, than confuse a lot of people :) > > --Andrew > > On Tue, 2003-04-22 at 16:33, Aaron L Burgemeister wrote: > > Acronym: 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 > > > > As noted above, NATO, radar and snafu are all pronouncable without saying > > "N-A-T-O, R-A-D-A-R, S-N-A-F-U", etc. So is PHP really a recursive > > acronym or is acronym a word everybody likes to use to describe an > > abbreviation? > > > > Just curious. > > > > Aaron > > > -- > Andrew Lindeman <alindeman@php.net> > >