Rachel Cobleigh (reveilles) wrote,
Rachel Cobleigh
reveilles
  • Mood: cheerful

the joy of pedantry

I recently discovered the existence of the word "initialism" and the fine difference in meaning between that and "acronym". For example, IBM is an initialism, as are OJ, USA, LoTR, and ROTFL. For comparison, laser is an acronym, as are FUBAR, robot, radar and NASA.


The fine difference is that you can pronounce acronyms, while you must spell out initialisms.


There, don't you feel so special now that you can split this hair, too?

:)
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