NEC: is it "neck" or N-E-C?

Well, okay, maybe that was cheating a bit. :-)

Reply to
Doug Miller
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Dunno, everyone I ask at the BORG here knows where things are and are surprisingly helpful. I rather like the joint, though I wish the lefty-loons would let Lowes in for a little competition.

Reply to
krw

LOL! I have never been sucked into the coffee drinking habit. Thanks for the correction and the laugh.

Reply to
Steve Barker LT

Then you shouldn't have included the link. It says that acronyms, intialisms and alphabetisms are abbreviations. I've been retired for over 8 years so I may be behind the times. But, during

20 years of writing and editing, I never heard or saw the word initialism. Probably because there is no need. For example, saying "FBI is the initialism of the Federal Bureau of Investigation," is a rather stupid way of saying that FBI is(are) the initials of ..........." BTW, none of my dictionaries have a definition of initialism. I didn't bother to look up alphabetism but I've never heard anyone use the term and it is not found in any of the style guides I used. Again, probably because there is very little to no opportunity to use it and not feel foolish.

In the Wikipedia article, the constructed argument defining the differences and uses among various types of abbreviations may be entertaining and somewhat informative but is mostly nonsense. Abbreviations are not constructed based on some set of abstract rules but are usually introduced as a convenience in writing or speaking and may vary with the writer or speaker. If a person introduces an abbreviation that is useful and that form is accepted, it becomes common, but may persist only for a short time.

Another BTW, the author has made some rather silly mistakes in selecting and describing some foreign language examples. I give only one. The author says Chinese is a syllable-based writing system. It is not, it is a word based system. The pronunciation of some characters have a complex sound that in English we would be interpreted as more than one syllable; much different from Japanese. Also, his interpretation of daxue is as laughable as interpreting high school in English to mean tall school.

Reply to
George E. Cawthon

Abbreviations is a general classification and the others are more specific. Abbreviations doesn't specify how the word was shortened, the others do. I'm not sure how you could construe what I wrote to mean something else, but as you did, I'll apologize for not being clearer.

Just because you haven't encountered something doesn't mean it doesn't exist.

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Like I said in an earlier post, initialism was a new one on me, and I thanked Steve for pointing it out.

R
Reply to
RicodJour

Oops I lost track of the thread. My statement was to Charlie Morgan. Then you answered and I responded as though you were Charlie Morgan. Sorry about that.

Sure it does. ;)

Seriously, people that use abbreviations, acronyms, and such don't have any reason to use intialism or the more hideous alphabetism. They just want the correct abbreviation. Pretty soon we may have to discuss numberisms, symbolisms, and capitalisms. Thank god capitalism is already used for something else.

BTW, doesn't alphabetism mean using the alphabet? Isn't that usually called writing? I see these terms were used at the beginning of the last century, apparently they died a needed death for most American dictionaries. Silly word and phrase usage is a real poke in the eye for me. Oh well, I'll just shut up for now.

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Reply to
George E. Cawthon

I always pronounced that, or at least heard it as, lem!

Reply to
mm

At the time, I had trouble with the schwa sound. I guess I'm remembering that.

Reply to
Mark Lloyd

Ooh, yeah. ads on the radio lately around here, "Corey Barton Homes has changed their name. Now they are CBH Homes!"

No, tell me it ain't so!!!!

sdb

Reply to
sylvan butler

Yes, but if you are more accustomed to one than the other, it will always be heard (or read) first as the most typical for you. Of course you will figure it out by context, but that comes later in the brain's processing.

For example, I work where we talk a lot about "Print Quality" or as we commonly refer, "PQ". Recently I was researching HDTV monitors, and "PQ" there is obviously "Picture Quality." I had no problem understanding what was being said, but my thought process was always "print quality, NO! picture quality".

sdb

Reply to
sylvan butler

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