Differences

This shows you the differences between two versions of the page.

--- abbreviations_acronyms_initialisms [2023/03/29 07:21] – [Initialism] wikiowner
+++ abbreviations_acronyms_initialisms [2025/11/05 06:36] (current) – [Acronym] wikiowner
@@ Line 10: / Line 10: @@
 Examples:
   * **Dr.** - Doctor (dokˈtər)
+  * **BTW** - **B**y **T**he **W**ay
   * **lb** - Pound, as in a unit of weight (Meghan Jones provides an explanation for this, [[https://www.rd.com/article/why-pounds-is-lbs/|here]].)
   * **Mr.** - Mister (mĭsˈtər) - Used as a courtesy title before the surname, full name, or professional title of a man.
@@ Line 17: / Line 18: @@
-**Bonus Material:** There is a special HTML tag for abbreviations.  It's <html><abbr></html>, and should include a <html>title</html> attribute which spells-out the abbreviation. And since initialisms and acronyms are just special cases of abbreviations, this tag should be used for those as well.
+**Bonus Material:** There is a special HTML tag for abbreviations.  It is ''<abbr></abbr>'', and it should include a ''title'' attribute which spells-out the abbreviation. And since initialisms and acronyms are just special cases of abbreviations, this tag should be used for those as well.
 Here is an example:
-<html>
-<abbr title="National Aeronautics and Space Administration">NASA</abbr>
+''<abbr title="National Aeronautics and Space Administration">NASA</abbr>''
-</html>
@@ Line 38: / Line 39: @@
   * **ASCII** - **A**merican **S**tandard **C**ode for **I**nformation **I**nterchange - a character encoding standard for electronic communication
   * **BOHICA** - **B**end **O**ver **H**ere **I**t **C**omes **A**gain - The name given by employees to many of the programs implemented by INL.
-  * **CAPTCHA** - **C**ompletely **A**utomated **P**ublic **T**uring test to tell **C**omputers and **H**umans **A**part - The acronym (pronounced KAP-chə) is the challenge-response test just about everyone has seen when trying to access their online accounts.
+  * **CAPTCHA** - **C**ompletely **A**utomated **P**ublic **T**uring test to tell **C**omputers and **H**umans **A**part - The acronym (pronounced KAP-chə) is the challenge-response test just about everyone has seen when trying to access their online accounts.  Here's a recent example. {{:captcha.jpg?linkonly|}}
   * **Cron** - As in Cronjob.  **C**ommand **R**un **O**n **N**otice
+  * **DOS** - **D**isk **O**perating **S**ystem - What we had before Windows.  (Yes, I know that's a pretty lame explanation, but good enough.)
   * **ESRI** - **E**nvironmental **S**ystems **R**esearch **I**nstitute - The acronym (pronounced 'ez-ree') is now the preferred usage however, it is still spoken as an initialism, particularly by long-time (i.e. old) ESRI software users.
   * **FOMO** - **F**ear **O**f **M**issing **O**ut -  The sense that when you're presented with new information, whether via email, seeing a new article in your Facebook or Twitter feeds, or scrolling through notifications on your phone, that if you don't stop everything and consume it immediately, you're going to miss out on something super important that everybody else in the world knows about but you.
   * **F _ _ _**  - **F**ornication **U**nder **C**onsent of the **K**ing - The most popular acronym in the world, and one that few even knew was an acronym.
   * **JSON** - (pronounced "jason" according to its inventor, Douglas Crockford), stands for **J**ava**S**cript **O**bject **N**otation
-  * **LiDAR** - **Li**ght **D**etection **a**nd **R**anging
+  * **Laser** - **Li**ght **A**mplification of **S**timulated **E**mission of **R**adiation - Everyone knows what a laser is.
+  * **LiDAR** - **Li**ght **D**etection **a**nd **R**anging - A laser version of Radar.  (See Radar, below.)
+  * **LORAN** - **L**ong **R**ange **N**avigation - A long range system developed in the United States during World War II.
   * **NASA** - **N**ational **A**eronautics and **S**pace **A**dministration
   * **NATO** - **N**orth **A**tlantic **T**reaty **O**rganization
   * **OPEC** - **O**rganization of the **P**etroleum **E**xporting **C**ountries
+  * **PARC** - **P**alo **A**lto **R**esearch **C**enter - PARC is where the computer mouse came from.  They did a few other things as well.
+  * **PIN** - **P**ersonal **I**dentification **N**umber, used for just about everything in the world.
   * **Radar** - **RA**dio **D**etecting **A**nd **R**anging
   * **Scuba** - **S**elf-**C**ontained **U**nderwater **B**reathing **A**pparatus
   * **SMART** - As used in 'Smart Goals.'  Stands for **S**pecific, **M**easurable, **A**ttainable, **R**elevant, **T**ime-based.  That's all we really know about this having never been able to successfully set a Smart Goal.
   * **Sonar** - **SO**und **N**avigation **A**nd **R**anging
-  * **SQL** - Stands for **S**tructured **Q**uery **L**anguage.  Even though many people pronounce this as a word (sequel), and thereby making it an acronym, that's wrong. It's really an initialism (see below in the Initialism section) and it should be pronounced that way.  (BTW, SEQUEL, was a real acronym back in the 70s when it stood for **S**tructured **E**nglish **Que**ry **L**anguage, but was dropped because it was a trademark of an airplane company.)
+  * **SQL** - Stands for **S**tructured **Q**uery **L**anguage.  Even though many people pronounce this as a word (sequel), and thereby making it an acronym, that's wrong. It's really an initialism (see below in the Initialism section) and it should be pronounced that way.  (BTW, SEQUEL, was a real acronym back in the 70s when it stood for **S**tructured **E**nglish **Que**ry **L**anguage, but was dropped because it was a trademark of an airplane company.) BTW, this is the only three-letter acronym that I have at the moment, but like I mentioned, it's really used incorrectly.
-  * **SWOT** - **S**trengths, **W**eaknesses, **O**pportunities, and **T**hreats - Used as a structured planning method to evaluate these key areas of an organization. My experience has shown that this is just another thing that some people like to do and then try to pass it off as being actually useful.
+  * **SWOT** - **S**trengths, **W**eaknesses, **O**pportunities, and **T**hreats - Used as a structured planning method to evaluate these key areas of an organization. My experience has shown that this is just another thing that some people like to do and then try to pass it off as actually being useful.
-  * **WYSIWYG** - Pronounced (WIZ-ee-wig) - Stands for "**W**hat **Y**ou **S**ee **I**s **W**hat **Y**ou **G**et."  The phrase was originally created by Flip Wilson's character Geraldine and it inspired researchers at PARC (and elsewhere) to create the acronym for computer software.
+  * **WYSIWYG** - Pronounced (WIZ-ee-wig) - Stands for "**W**hat **Y**ou **S**ee **I**s **W**hat **Y**ou **G**et."  That phrase, "what you see is what you get", was originally created by Flip Wilson's character Geraldine and it inspired researchers at PARC (and elsewhere) to use the acronym for computer software that allows content to be edited in a form that looks like it will when printed.  Pretty much a useless acronym now, but was popular at one time.
   * **YAGNI** - Stands for "**Y**ou **A**ren't **G**onna **N**eed **I**t" - a principle of extreme programming (XP) that states a programmer should not add functionality until deemed necessary.
@@ Line 71: / Line 77: @@
   * **BFF** - **B**est **F**riends **F**orever
   * **CD** - **C**ompact **D**isc
+  * **CGI** - **C**ommon **G**ateway **I**nterface - an interface specification that enables web servers to execute an external program to process HTTP/S user requests.  These programs are commonly referred to as CGI scripts.  Examples include CGI scripts that process form submissions.
   * **CIDR** - **C**lassless **I**nter-**D**omain **R**outing (I use this all the time.)
   * **CSS** - **C**ascading **S**tyle **S**heets
   * **DVD** - **D**igital **V**ideo **D**isc
-  * **DYK** - **D**id **y**ou **k**now
+  * **DYK** - **D**id **Y**ou **K**now
-  * **DYC** - **D**o **y**ou **c**are
+  * **DYC** - **D**o **Y**ou **C**are
   * **e.g.** - from the Latin //**e**xemplī **g**rātiā// ‎(“for example”)
   * **EPA** - **E**nvironmental **P**rotection **A**gency
@@ Line 99: / Line 106: @@
   * **PHP** - PHP is a very powerful scripting language.  In the beginning (1995) "PHP" stood for "**P**ersonal **H**ome **P**age."  But that's changed.  It's now a recursive abbreviation and stands for "**P**HP - **H**ypertext **P**reprocessor."
   * **PII** - **P**ersonally **I**dentifiable **I**nformation. Examples include: Full name/usernames, Home address/mailing address, Email address, Credit card numbers, Date of birth, and Phone numbers.
-  * **PIN** - **P**ersonal **I**dentification **N**umber, used for just about everything in the world.
+  * **QR**  (as in QR code) - **Q**uick **R**esponse
   * **SFTP** - **S**SH **FTP** (File Transfer Protocol), essentially Secure FTP
-  * **SQL** - Stands for **S**tructured **Q**uery **L**anguage and although most people pronounce this as a word, and therefore consider it an acronym, that's wrong.  It's really an initialism and it should be pronounced that way.
+  * **SQL** - Stands for **S**tructured **Q**uery **L**anguage and although most people pronounce this as a word, and therefore consider it an acronym, that's wrong.  It's really an initialism and it should be pronounced that way.  See also SQL in the Acronym section, above.
   * **SSH** - **S**ecure **Sh**ell
   * **TFS** - **T**eam **F**oundation **S**erver - something from Microsoft supposedly to aid in the development of software.  Here's an interesting and little known fact.  It was originally called "Productivity Optimization Server," however, confusion resulted since the phrase "Microsoft POS" referred to multiple Microsoft products.
-  * **TL;DR** - short for "**T**oo **L**ong; **D**idn't **R**ead" - Internet slang to say that some text being replied to has been ignored because of its length.  Variations include: **ToS;DR** - "Terms of Service; didn't read"and **DC;DR** - "don't care; didn't read",
+  * **TL;DR** - short for "**T**oo **L**ong; **D**idn't **R**ead" - Internet slang to say that some text being replied to has been ignored because of its length.  Variations include: **ToS;DR** - "Terms of Service; Didn't Read"and **DC;DR** - "Don't Care; Didn't Read",
   * **TMI** - **T**oo **M**uch **I**nformation, or **T**hree **M**ile **I**sland, depending on the context.
   * **URL** - **U**niform **R**esource **L**ocator and is a reference to a resource on the Internet.  It's usually just referred to as the web address.  Some people will pronounce this as if it was an acronym (earl) but that's wrong, and just sounds stupid.
-  * **UX** - Guess this is an initialism with a typo.  It means **U**ser E**x**perience.
+  * **UX** - Guess this is an initialism with a typo.  It stands for **U**ser E**x**perience.
-  * **VCS**  - **V**ersion **C**ontrol **S**ystem, e.g. GIT or SVN
+  * **VCS**  - **V**ersion **C**ontrol **S**ystem, a system responsible for managing changes to software, e.g. GIT or SVN
   * **VHS** - **V**ideo **H**ome **S**ystem (nobody ever knew this!)
-  * **WTF** - **W**hat's **T**his **F**or - the name of this wiki.  But let's be honest, no one thinks WTF stands for What's This For.  Also, no one ever exclaims "WTF!"  They just say it.  Regardless, I'm including it in my list of initialisms in an effort to make this list contain every possible abbreviation, acronym, and initialism in the free world.
   * **XKCD** - Ok, this is **NOT** an initialism.  According to [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xkcd | this]], it's "just a word with no phonetic pronunciation." I'm putting it here, anyway, because this is probably where someone will go to look for it. [[https://xkcd.com/ | XKCD]] (or xkcd) is "A webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language."
-**Note:** \\
+**Notes on Initialisms** \\
-Many people would simply call these initialisms, abbreviations, which is fine.\\
+Many people would simply call these abbreviations, which is fine.\\
-Many more people would call these initialisms, acronyms, which is **not** fine.
+Many more people would call these acronyms, which is **not** fine.
@@ Line 125: / Line 131: @@
   * **BLOG** - You can pronounce this as a word, but it's not an abbreviation, either.  It's a truncation of "we**b log**."  A blog is essentially a website where the owner publishes content to the web.  They became popular because they don't require any technical skills.  Blogs often allow readers to comment, which are also then published on the site.
   * **email** - Concatenation of "**e**lectronic" and"**mail**."  Used to be that it was written e-mail but I guess Websters decided to change that.
-  * **QWERTY** - Pronounced as a word but it's not an abbreviation for anything, it just refers to the standard keyboard layout that people have been using since the phrase "carriage return" meant something.  It gets its name from the first six letters, starting from the left, in the top row of the keyboard.  (duh)
+  * **QWERTY** - Pronounced as a word but it's not an abbreviation for anything, it just refers to the standard keyboard layout that’s been in use since people knew what a "carriage return" was.
   * **VLOG** - Can't easily pronounce this, but it's shorthand for "**v**ideo **log**."  Basically a blog but the medium is video.
@@ Line 134: / Line 140: @@
 <wrap def>(băkˈrə-nĭm) - a constructed phrase that purports to be the source of an acronym.</wrap>\\
 Examples:
-  * **SPAM** - **S**omething **P**osing **A**s **M**eat
   * **MOAB** - **M**other **o**f **A**ll **B**ombs (in response to Saddam Hussein's "mother of all battles," but really stands for **M**assive **O**rdnance **A**ir **B**last bomb)
+  * **SPAM** - **S**omething **P**osing **A**s **M**eat