Are we trying to save time, make things easier or in many cases more complicated? Scientific research has found that saying ABBA instead of “Agnetha – Benny – Bjorn – Anni” is saving us a total of 14 minutes if we live till the tender age of 98 (and good luck with that). Of course this is not true, because I made it up; we actually save 27 minutes – but you get the overall idea, DY? (Don’t You?)
We all know that the Latin word brevis means short, and doesn’t that word more appropriately describe something diminutive compared to abbreviation? The silly thing is that we can of course also abbreviate abbreviation; it's abbr. And how you pronounce abbr, is totally up to you. I can say it whatever way I want, because I’m from Denmark and you wouldn’t expect me to say it correctly, would you, huh? Now it’s your turn; let’s hear it.
We use and misuse abbreviations and we use some of them not fully understanding what they actually mean. Most say PIN number, which means that you are saying Personal Identity Number Number; PIN is all you need to say and now you know what it means.
We use and misuse abbreviations and we use some of them not fully understanding what they actually mean. Most say PIN number, which means that you are saying Personal Identity Number Number; PIN is all you need to say and now you know what it means.
Please tell me why we abbreviate pound as lb. I can’t find neither l nor b in the word pound – and I looked twice; can you?
Here’s one we should all know what is: ADF. In airplane lingo (brevis for language, by the way), ADF means Automatic Direction Finder. If you are on a plane at 35,000 ft. and the captain is rushing up and down the aisles screaming: “Where the hell is that damn ADF?”, you might want to look under the seat for a parachute. If it’s the auto-pilot screaming for the bloody ADF, looking for a bible would no doubt be more appropriate; good stuff to know.
Abbreviations were used extensively back in early literacy, which makes sense as everything was hand-written using feathers and juice from an octopus. As far as I know, those days are over, but we still abbreviate – old habit and a bit of laziness.
ABC is short for American Broadcasting Company, but here in California’s wine-country, it can also mean Anything But Chardonnay.
A religious abbreviation is HC for Holy Communion. They use the same HC in India, but for Holy Cow – if they don’t, they really should.
We all know PC means Personal Computer. For some it also stands for Pretty Confusing. We watch those cool dudes and dudettes in awesome outfits catching bad guys on TV (that’s Television or Totally Vague – many times the same thing). They are part of a SWAT team. I bet you have no idea what that stands for, though you hear it often and maybe even say it out loud in public. Special Weapons and Tactics, also known as Shooting Without Any Thinking.
BTW is By The Way or the less popular: Back to Work; and the extremely ignorant one is from back in Salem year 1660-something: Burn the Witches (a dark spot on American history, if you ask me…)
Some silly person asks you to send the URL link of something in an E-Mail (you know that’s Electronic Mail, huh?) But you struggle with the URL. Well, that’s another reason you follow my blog – for the vast quantity of great information. Okay, URL stands for Uniform Resource Locator and I have absolutely no idea what the heck that means – I can only guess.
Quick, what is IT? – Information Technology. And here is the tongue-twister: DNA. We use this often, hear it in movies and TV shows constantly; I’m not looking for your understanding of the abbreviation, but I just want to see if you can pronounce what it stands for: Deoxyribonucleic Acid. This is where we embrace abbreviations BT (Big Time)…
SPAM; well, some like spam when it means Some Parts Are Meat, but the electronic understanding Self Propelled Advertising Material or SP Automatic Mail, can be rather annoying, DYTS? (Don’t You Think So?)
ATM = Automated Teller Machine – DOB = Date of Birth or Dirty Old Bugger.
Finding our ways around we use a GPS. Do you know what it really stands for? ADTS (I didn’t Think So). Global Positioning System. I use the GPS a lot, and always wonder what the person with the voice telling me where to go does in between her directions – DY? I mean I go 250 miles on Interstate 5 in total silence – and then suddenly she wakes me up. So what has she been doing all this time?
When we talk about our cell-phones we loosely use the term SIM card, as if we know what we are talking about – and for the most we don’t. We know where it goes and somewhat what it is supposed to do, but SIM? Well, it’s Subscriber Identification Module – so there you have it.
CEO stands for Chief Executive Officer, which is kind of the boss-of-bosses; but BOB wouldn’t sound as important, would it?
PM is Post Meridiem, which is Latin for After Noon (makes sense, but why not use AN?) AM is for Ante Meridiem which is Latin for Before Noon (so why not BN?) When we try it out, meeting somebody for lunch at 11:30 BN doesn’t sound romantic at all, does it?
PM is Post Meridiem, which is Latin for After Noon (makes sense, but why not use AN?) AM is for Ante Meridiem which is Latin for Before Noon (so why not BN?) When we try it out, meeting somebody for lunch at 11:30 BN doesn’t sound romantic at all, does it?
With texting in the billions of messages daily world-wide, we have made abbreviations an art-form, KO (kind of). But to me it’s about the ethics of respect in our communication. Don’t get me wrong, I’m for all kinds of communication and if increasing communication with other humans involves an adjustment of language, I am seriously all for it. I highly appreciate that whole thing, as I think that many who would normally not communicate as much otherwise (shyness, insecurities, etc.) now have cell-phones, social networks as Facebook and other avenues of staying in touch; all the more power to them (BTW: I’m going to cash in my 350,000 Facebook shares later this month – I wish).
I was against texting from the start, but finally saw the use. Communicating with my kids, wife and friends for short remarks and “love you’s” became, well cool, and now it’s part of the communication package I use. But I will not abbreviate or shorten my language – I refuse to do so, no matter how old-fashioned that makes me sound – R U OK with that?
Now it’s time to listen to Dancing Queen performed by Agnetha – Benny – Bjorn – Anni. I'll turn it up, bite that lower lip and swing them hips… till next Monday …
Even back then I thought ABBA dressed weird
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The piece i.e abbreviations is a great piece, fun and interesting. The fun when you play around with the reader e.g. the meaning of HC in India is risky as the reader might just believe you. But it is also an example of how you include the reader in your writing. Another example is the invitation to say the abbr abbr. I used to teach and train people to perform in front of other people. According to Jerry Seinfeld that is the worst thing americans can do. Even worse than dying. The old greeks called incluclusion of the listener or reader ethos. I think it is quite nice of me to mention this.
ReplyDeleteMilitary personell loves abbr. In the swedish army they have an abbr. for plain speech (klartext) - kx. That abbr. is in itself a paradox. They also have a abbr. for the mix of colours that their clothes have - grbrgr i.e greeenbrowngrey.
Anyway ABBR. was fun and interesting reading.
My identity in the blogcommunity was established some five years ago. I suddenly realise that it has not been exposed to an american audience until now. I hope you will not get any troubles from knowing a person with my name. I guess in that case it will be your problem. Sorry!