Re: Use of ACRONYM

I would say that radar and sonar are now words and the fact that they 
were coined from acronymns is only important historically. That they are 
no longer capitalized seems to support this view.

CITE as an acronym should be in the acronym element because users 
probably won't know what it stands for. Also, it is unlikely to enter 
the language as a word since it is already in use as a word.

The U.S. military (maybe militaries worldwide) is famous for using 
acronyms, and they are *always* pronounced as words (they are usually 
much longer than the initials would be). Examples:

CINCPAC (sink-pack) for Commander-in-chief, Pacific fleet
COMSUBLANT (com-sub-lant) for Commander, Submarine Fleet, Atlantic Ocean

It seems to me that there is a big advantage to preserving the meaning 
of acronym -- thus my refusal to accept the watered down version -- but 
it looks like a losing battle. And W3C's bad examples (which have been 
mentioned before) are not helping.

Charles F. Munat
Seattle, Washington

Pamela Shorey wrote:
> Hi, Charles,
> 
> My sense of the word was the same as yours.
> 
> 
>>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.
>>
> 
> I checked several online dictionaries (webster, heritage and cambridge) and
> got basically the same answer in all three:
> "Abbreviation" is the shortened form of a word *or phrase*
> "Acronym" is a kind of abbreviation,  a WORD made up from the first letter
> or letters of a pharase eg "radar," or  a kind of abbreviation that is
> *pronounced* as a word
> 
> It occurs to me one ought to use the designations of ABBR and ACRONYM
> selectively. In normal writing, it is typical to put the meaning of an
> abreviation in parentheses after the first use, but not if it is a very well
> known abbreviation used all the time, such as FBI. IF the text designates
> the meaning of the abbreviation, it is necessary to code it only to tell the
> screen reader not to say "fibi" instead of "eff-bee-eye."
> 
> But with acronym, it should perhaps not be coded where it wouldn't be
> explained in normal writing AND the screen reader has no trouble pronouncing
> it, such as "radar," a word that is so common in English that it has more
> meaning to many people than the words it stands for.
> It should be used, however, in an instance like Maine CITE, since the
> pronounced word would be meaningless in context without the information that
> it's an acronym. The sight reader gets that information from the
> capitalization.
> 
> For any reader, it's not a good idea to put too many uncommon abbreviations
> into one text -- the reader gets lost and can't recall what they all stand
> for.
> 
> 
> Interesting discussion...
> 
> Pam Shorey
> 
> 
> 
> 

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