Talk:Acronym

What it called

if the acronym refer to the opposite word like stop stand for start testing our people? or if the acronym refer to itself in another language like thres stand for Three Rivers Elementary School? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2601:2C3:4201:D70:AC17:B48A:76A2:A071 (talk • contribs) 07:30, 5 December 2020 (UTC)

Neither term in the first part is an acronym, and the acronym in the second part doesn't have anything to do with the described quality.

If you somehow created an acronym spelled STOP that meant "go", it would be called "ironic", "clever", "too cute by half", or "actively unhelpful" depending on the context.

If you somehow created an acronym spelled ECOLE that meant high school, it would be called "multicultural", "clever", "francophile", "obnoxious", or—among some of the Canadian electorate—"pro-Separatist". — LlywelynII 00:50, 24 June 2023 (UTC)

T L E

What does the acronym TLE mean? 2001:4455:6CC:2000:D8BB:1495:BEFD:638F (talk) 08:53, 9 September 2022 (UTC)

You're probably looking for the Wikipedia:Community portal where you can ask for help with direct questions. This question doesn't have anything to do with this article's content, though. — LlywelynII 00:56, 24 June 2023 (UTC)

New section

I replaced the previous misinformation for "Showing the ellipsis of letters" with

In English, abbreviations have previously been marked by a wide variety of [[English punctuation|punctuation]]. Obsolete forms include using an [[overbar]] or [[colon (punctuation)|colon]] to show the [[ellipsis]] of letters following the initial part. The [[forward slash]] is still common in many dialects for some fixed expressions{{mdash}}such as ''w/'' for "with" or ''A/C'' for "[[air conditioning]]"{{mdash}}while only infrequently being used to abbreviate new terms. The [[apostrophe]] is common for [[Contraction_(grammar)#English|grammatical contractions]] (e.g. ''don't'', ''[[y'all]]'', and ''[[ain't]]'') and for contractions marking unusual pronunciations (e.g. ''a'ight'', ''cap'n'', and ''fo'c'sle'' for "alright", "captain", and "forecastle"). By the early 20th century, it was standard to use a [[full stop|full stop/period/point]], especially in the cases of initialisms and acronyms. Previously, especially for [[Latin abbreviations]], this was done with a full space between every full word (e.g. {{lang|la|A. D.}}, {{lang|la|i. e.}}, and {{lang|la|e. g.}} for "[[Anno Domini]]", "[[id est]]", and "[[exempli gratia]]"). This even included punctuation after both [[Roman numerals|Roman]] and [[Arabic numerals]] to indicate their use in place of the full names of each number (e.g. ''LII.'' or ''52.'' in place of "fifty-two" and "1/4." or "1./4." to indicate "one-fourth"). Both conventions have fallen out of common use in all dialects of English, except in places where an Arabic [[decimal number|decimal]] includes a medial [[decimal point]].

Particularly in [[British English|British]] and [[Commonwealth English]], all such punctuation marking acronyms and other capitalized abbreviations is now uncommon and considered either unnecessary or incorrect. The presence of all-capital letters is now thought sufficient to indicate the nature of the ''[[United Kingdom|UK]]'', the ''[[European Union|EU]]'', and the ''[[United Nations|UN]]''. Forms such as ''the U.S.A.'' for "the [[United States of America]]" are now considered to indicate [[American English|American]] or [[North American English]]. Even within those dialects, such punctuation is becoming increasingly uncommon.<ref>[[Oxford English Dictionary]]: ''initialism''. "Globe & Mail (Toronto) 22 May 10/4 Americanization has also largely done away with periods in acronyms and initialisms."</ref>

If anyone reverts it to the old text, at minimum, kindly restore the UK/Commonwealth versus US/NA distinction; mention the numbers; and remove the phrasing that makes it sound like it's still standard for Americans to use spaces between the letters of an acronym. It hasn't been normal in decades if not centuries at this point. — LlywelynII 00:56, 24 June 2023 (UTC)

May need better source

We might need a better source for the term "word acronym" (also spelled "word-acronym"). I went with the first free-full-text source in a journal that I ran across, and it triggered an edit-filter that doesn't like this journal. https://ijifactor.com/journals/151/International-Journal-of-English-Linguistics-(IJEL) doesn't seem to show any red-flags; says the journal is double-blind peer-reviewed. But someone on WP must have an issue with it.  — SMcCandlish ☏ ¢ 😼  15:05, 29 October 2023 (UTC)

I reverted all the changes introduced by 70.50.49.6, as they completely change the definition and were implemented without building consensus here on the talk page. Nohat (talk) 17:06, 29 October 2023 (UTC)

That works, too. However, we do mention "word acronym" later in the material, and it could maybe use better sourcing anyway.  — SMcCandlish ☏ ¢ 😼  17:31, 29 October 2023 (UTC)

"Contrived acronyms" section

@Six Oh Five: Why does this section have this cleanup tag? Jarble (talk) 04:12, 28 January 2024 (UTC)

@Jarble not sure what tag that is as I'm on the mobile app. If you're asking about the tone tag, the paragraph beginning with "The short-form names of clinical trials..." reads like an informal essay. Six Oh Five (talk) 04:24, 28 January 2024 (UTC)

Confusing use of Gaelic in the last paragraph 81.98.11.143 (talk) 18:29, 11 May 2024 (UTC)

The last paragraph mentions Gaelic when talking about the abreviation TBh for TV, but the previously talked about Irish and Scots Gaelic. Which is meant by "Gaelic"? (I know that the Irish language is commonly referred to as "Gaelic" in the US, but the English word for the language is "Irish" not "Gaelic") 81.98.11.143 (talk) 18:34, 11 May 2024 (UTC)

Article pic/example

@Bremps I agree that laser is a better example than NYPD (what it was before you changed it). Since laser is pronounced as a word one cannot claim: it's _not_ an acronym; even though that initialism thing is weak IMO. But, I don't think laser is great since it's not all-caps and therefore more unusual. Also, I do not personally like the pic you used. It looks like a gun which is triggering (no pun intended). To me a good pic of a laser is a hand-held pointer or a physics experiment. [I tried to include examples, but WP won't let me link to external images.]

IMO, a good example of acronym is all-caps, has no punctuation and is pronounced as a word. The first one that always pops in my head is NASA. Surely there are many more good candidates. But, most like NASA and what it represents so it's pleasing. Stevebroshar (talk) 12:52, 28 May 2024 (UTC)

NASA is great. "Taser" as an example of an acronym is loose and weak and while NASA is a more standard, and thus better, example. Bremps... 18:14, 28 May 2024 (UTC)

Not examples

As is common on WP articles, I think the examples have gone overboard; including too much and also including items that are not examples of the concept of the article.

Amphetamine: is an abbreviation of "alpha-methyl-phenethylamine" but not an acronym since is not just initials; an acronym would be like AMP or AMPT (not a chemist so just guessing at important parts of the words)

Gestapo: is an abbreviation of Geheime Staatspolizei; GS would be an acronym; I'd say SS is an acronym

All of the Shortcut incorporated into spelling items are questionable. They look sorta like acronyms since they are all-caps without punctuation. But, they seem like something other than an acronym to me. For example, MMM surely is an acronym, but is 3M? 3M seems to be an abbreviation of an abbreviation!

The mnemonics are acronyms, but ... are they on topic? I think not. Same for multi-layered, recursive, gramograms and RAS. Example overkill IMO. Stevebroshar (talk) 13:11, 28 May 2024 (UTC)

Would agree, as the purpose of examples is to illustrate, not to include everything. If no one objects for a while, I'll be doing a culling. Bremps... 18:15, 28 May 2024 (UTC)