Arnold Zwicky's Blog

abbreviation postings

not here: truncations of complex expressions, passing mentions of specific abbreviations

☛ GP, 5/24/04: KiloGhits and MegaGhits: measuring web frequency:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/000951.html
proposed abbreviations for web searches

☛ PR, 5/24/04: Ghits – and Whits?:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/000954.html
proposed abbreviations for web searches

☛ GP, 5/25/04: Webhits on Google per gigapage: A replacement proposal:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/000958.html
ordinary abbreviations: for physical units; proposed abbreviations for web searches

☛ ML, 4/30/05: Ambiguity:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/002113.html
alphabetic abbreviations: interpreting them in context

☛ ML, 6/25/05: The ships, it shuts everything up:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/002264.html
clippings of initial material (“back-end abbreviations”)

☛ ML, 6/27/05: Bizzerk:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/002269.html
clippings of initial material (“back-end abbreviations”)

☛ BZ, 12/30/05: From Nabisco to NaNoWriMo:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/002734.html
alphabetic abbreviations: blend acronyms

☛ GP, 1/13/06: No tattoed acronym:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/002760.html
alphabetic abbreviations: terminology

☛ GP, 1/19/06: A prescriptivist rant? Get a clue:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/002768.html
alphabetic abbreviations: terminology

☛ GP, 6/28/06: There’s no battle, Morgan!:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/003299.html
not clippings: till, though

☛ ML, 8/21/06: Term for shifting plural s to the end of initialisms and acronyms?:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/003484.html
alphabetic abbreviations: plurals

☛ GP, 8/21/06: No plural shifting term:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/003486.html
alphabetic abbreviations: plurals

☛ AZ, 9/3/06: University name bulletins:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/003537.html
alphabetic abbreviations in university names

☛ AZ, 9/5/06: The the in The Ohio State University:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/003548.html
with note on the abbreviation tOSU

☛ AZ, 9/7/06: Orphan initialisms:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/003555.html

☛ AZ, 9/9/06: Abbreviatory oddities:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/003562.html
alphabetic abbreviations: orphan abbreviations

☛ ML, 10/20/06: Annals of self-censorship: Avoiding the F-letter:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/003692.html
alphabetic abbreviations: taboo avoidance within them

☛ ML, 4/8/07: Hed, dek, lede, graf, tk: Live with it:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/004380.html
assorted newsroom abbreviations

☛ ML, 8/3/07: Wev:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/004781.html
clipping wev ‘whatever’

☛ AZ, 8/25/07: Another year of taboo avoidance:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/004855.html
avoidance of effing

☛ AZ, 9/17/07: (an)arthrous abbreviations:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/004923.html
alphabetic abbreviations: arthrousness, initialisms vs. acronyms

☛ GP, 1/25/08: Lower-cased initialisms:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/005347.html
alphabetic abbreviations: upper/lower case in acronyms

☛ BZ, 9/18/08: Shattering the illusions of texting:
http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=609
abbreviations (of many types) in, or not in, texting

☛ AZ, 10/30/08: Periods:
http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=779
alphabetic abbreviations: periods

☛ GP, 11/17/08: The WAGs back home:
http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=835
WAGs ‘wives and girlfriends’

☛ ML, 12/28/08: Filled pauses and faked audio:
http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=956
[in AMZ comment] upper case in acronyms

☛ GP, 2/5/09: Pakigate, Sootygate, Gollygate:
http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=1110
clippings

☛ BZ, 3/20/09: Oh no, it’s ngmoco:):
http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=1254
alphabetic abbreviations: acronym-initialism hybrid

☛ GP, 5/16/09: Egg blast:
http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=1439
[in comments] various clippings

☛ 5/18/19: Hybrid initial-letter abbreviations:
https://arnoldzwicky.wordpress.com/2009/05/18/hybrid-initial-letter-abbreviations/
alphabetic abbreviations: acronym-initialism hybrids

☛ 5/19/09: Coerced acronyms:
https://arnoldzwicky.wordpress.com/2009/05/19/coerced-acronyms/
alphabetic abbreviations: acronyms

☛ BZ, : 6/23/09: The first proposal for “Ms.” (1901):
http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=1533
ordinary abbreviations: periods

☛ 7/4/09: Periods and type size:
https://arnoldzwicky.wordpress.com/2009/07/04/periods-and-type-size/
alphabetic abbreviations: periods

☛ ML, 7/24/09: Write like me?:
http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=1599
[in comments] vs., vs, v., v

☛ GP, 7/31/09: Coming August 7:
http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=1614
ordinary abbreviations: periods

☛ ML, 8/3/09: Do not leave if you can help:
http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=1626
codes [in telegraphs]

☛ AZ, 8/4/09: Unidiomatic:
http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=1634
clippings [mollymooly comment on clippings with –s: maths, turps, meths]

☛ 8/29/09: Inventory of postings on abbreviation:
https://arnoldzwicky.wordpress.com/2009/08/29/inventory-of-postings-on-abbreviation/

☛ 9/1/09: Acronyms:
https://arnoldzwicky.wordpress.com/2009/09/01/acronyms/
terminology

☛ 9/20/09: More initialism complexities:
https://arnoldzwicky.wordpress.com/2009/09/20/more-initialism-complexities/
eye initalisms, regular initialisms, orphan initialisms

☛ 2/12/10: Acronym fun:
https://arnoldzwicky.wordpress.com/2010/02/12/acronym-fun/
taser

☛ 10/18/12: For short:
https://arnoldzwicky.wordpress.com/2012/10/18/for-short/
clipping, initialism, acronym

☛ 3/24/13: Cyanide and Happiness roundup:
https://arnoldzwicky.wordpress.com/2013/03/24/cyanide-and-happiness-roundup/
LOL treated as acronym

☛ 4/16/13: Initialistic ambiguity:
https://arnoldzwicky.wordpress.com/2013/04/16/initialistic-ambiguity/
CBT

☛ 5/1/13: Acronym of the week:
https://arnoldzwicky.wordpress.com/2013/05/01/acronym-of-the-week/
acronym Visconti

☛ 8/24/14: An orphan initialism:
https://arnoldzwicky.org/2014/08/24/an-orphan-initialism/
YMCA as orphan initialism

☛ 10/26/14: On the orphan initialism front:
https://arnoldzwicky.org/2014/10/26/on-the-orphan-initialism-front/
PFLAG as orphan initialism

☛ 7/2/15: Initialisms, raunchy and not:
https://arnoldzwicky.org/2015/07/02/initialisms-raunchy-and-not/
BJ for Beijing, blowjob, names

☛ 8/6/15: Coordinate initialisms:
https://arnoldzwicky.org/2015/08/06/coordinate-initialisms/
initialisms of the form x&y

☛ 8/23/15: Kraken! And GEICO!:
https://arnoldzwicky.org/2015/08/23/kraken-and-geico/
the acronym GEICO

☛ 9/21/15: Amber 2:
https://arnoldzwicky.org/2015/09/21/amber-2/
the backronym AMBER alert and the (carefully devised) acronym (Navy) SEALs, both all-caps

☛ 2/22/16: The pronoun strip:
https://arnoldzwicky.org/2016/02/22/the-pronoun-strip/
clipping pro for professional or prostitute

☛ 5/25/16: Ballad of beef:
https://arnoldzwicky.org/2016/05/25/ballad-of-beef/
three-letter country abbreviations (USA, CAN, GBR, AUS)

☛ 5/28/16: The snail days of summer:
https://arnoldzwicky.org/2016/05/28/the-snail-days-of-summer/
clipping ‘za for pizza

☛ 6/12/16: Rainbows and b8r bait:
https://arnoldzwicky.org/2016/06/13/rainbows-and-b8r-bait/
clippings bate and bator

☛ 7/9/16: Two cat cartoons:
https://arnoldzwicky.org/2016/07/09/two-cat-cartoons/
#1 with Cat for Caterpillar machine

☛ 11/13/16: Lukas is back!:
https://arnoldzwicky.org/2016/11/13/lukas-is-back/
truncation: vegan leather > vegan

☛ 12/9/16: NPO:
https://arnoldzwicky.org/2016/12/09/npo/
medical abbreviations

☛ 12/23/16: and the horse you rode in on:
https://arnoldzwicky.org/2016/12/23/and-the-art-horse-you-rode-in-on/
euphemistic abbreviation

☛ 12/23/16: Mac Daddy Santa:
https://arnoldzwicky.org/2016/12/23/mac-daddy-santa/
mackeral ‘pimp’ > mack, mac

☛ 1/1/17: Morning names for the new year:
https://arnoldzwicky.org/2017/01/01/morning-names-for-the-new-year/
nickname Ozzy / Ozzie

☛ 3/2/17: Annals of p.r. pitches:
https://arnoldzwicky.org/2017/03/02/annals-of-p-r-pitches/
initialism SEO

☛ 3/27/17: JoBroButts, Hills Bros. coffee, and gaybros:
https://arnoldzwicky.org/2017/03/27/jobrobutts-hills-bros-coffee-and-gaybros/
acronymic “blend” JoBro; Bros. for Brothers

☛ 4/17/17: Chub and chums in the morning
https://arnoldzwicky.org/2017/04/17/chub-and-chums-in-the-morning/
chubby> > chub

☛ 4/25/17: You can call me Al:
https://arnoldzwicky.org/2017/04/25/you-can-call-me-al/
names of the form /mIni Cæl/: acronyms, clippings, nicknames

☛ 7/25/17: From Tex-Mex to naked rugby:
https://arnoldzwicky.org/2017/07/25/from-tex-mex-to-naked-rugby/
abbreviation in Spanish nicknames (and English too)

☛ 8/30/17: Reduced questions:
https://arnoldzwicky.org/2017/08/30/reduced-questions/
NP reduced questions

☛ 9/1/17: BBC for Labor Day:
https://arnoldzwicky.org/2017/09/01/bbc-for-labor-day/
the initialism BBC, in various senses