Re: Use of ACRONYM

I beg to differ.

An acronym is an abbreviation made from the first letter or first few 
letters of multiple words *and producing a pronounceable new word.* MADD 
is an acronym, CSS is not.

This is a useful distinction, especially for the purposes of 
pronounciation using voicing agents. MADD should be pronounced like the 
word "mad," but CSS should be spelled out, not said as "ksss." Sadly, 
this is a distinction that is rapidly disappearing. Even the W3C has it 
wrong, as do many modern dictionaries.

CSS is a type of abbreviation consisting of initials. Thus CSS are the 
initials of Cascading Style Sheets, just as my initials are CFM. CFM is 
not my acronym.

Two of the most widely cited acronyms are RADAR and SONAR. These come 
from RAdio Detection And Ranging and SOund Navigation And Ranging, 
respectively. In contrast, the intials for these devices would be RDR 
and SNR. As you can see, initials and acronyms are not the same thing.

But I cannot possibly hope to convince everyone on the planet that this 
distinction is worth preserving (or even that it exists). Barring a 
pronouncement ex cathedra by the pope and an executive order from George 
W, acronym seems destined to lose its distinctiveness. What a shame.

On other lists, we have been round and round on this subject on numerous 
occasions and while many have seen the light, others simply refuse to 
budge. Since we cannot come to agreement on this issue, perhaps we 
should ensure that in any answer to this question, both positions are 
mentioned.

Of course, acronyms and intials are both forms of abbreviation, so you 
could simply use <abbr> for all of them.

Charles F. Munat
Seattle, Washington


Liz Bartlett wrote:
> At 10:57 PM 3/15/02 +0100, you wrote:
> 
>>Hallo John and Gerhard,
>>
>>I  only use <acronym title="???">CITE</acronym> when the abbreviation itself is an existing word as CITE.. 
>>IMO CSS is not an existing word, so I will use <abbr title="Cascading StyleSheets">CSS</abbr> 
>>
> 
> Acronyms are formed by using the initial letters of the
> words in a phrase e.g. 
> 
> CSS - Cascading Style Sheets
> NASA -  National Aeronautics & Space Administration
> 
> Abbreviations are shortened forms of single words e.g.
> 
> etc - Etcetera
> bio - Biography
> 
> This is the criteria I use when deciding whether to use ABBR or
> ACRONYM, but I doubt it matters as far as browser behaviour
> when the tags are encountered.
> 
> --Liz
> 
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