| 词组 | acronyms |
| 释义 | acronyms A number of commentators (as Copperud 1970, Janis 1984, Howard 1984) believe that acronyms can be differentiated from other abbreviations in being pronounceable as words. Dictionaries, however, do not make this distinction because writers in general do not: • The powder metallurgy industry has officially adopted the acronym "P/M Parts" —Precision Metal Molding, January 1966 • Users of the term acronym make no distinction between those which are pronounced as words ... and those which are pronounced as a series of characters —Jean Praninskas, Trade Name Creation, 1968 • It is not J.C.B.'s fault that its name, let alone its acronym, is not a household word among European scholars —Times Literary Supp., 5 Feb. 1970 • ... the confusion in the Pentagon about abbreviations and acronyms—words formed from the first letters of other words —Bernard Weinraub, N.Y. Times, 11 Dec. 1978 Pyles & Algeo 1970 divide acronyms into "initialisms," which consist of initial letters pronounced with the letter names, and "word acronyms," which are pronounced as words. Initialism, an older word than acronym, seems to be too little known to the general public to serve as the customary term standing in contrast with acronym in a narrow sense. Such burning issues among etymologists of a few decades ago as whether mini-cam and motel were allowable as acronyms seem to have faded into the past—we have no current evidence that such blends are referred to as acronyms any more. A number of commentators warn against the indiscriminate use of acronyms that may not be familiar to the reader of general text—sound common sense. Of course, if one is writing for a technical audience, one has more leeway in the use of acronyms. But even in technical articles, many authors gloss new acronyms for their readers' information at least upon their first appearance in the text. Many a seemingly catchy acronym has proven to have a short life, as the list of disapproved acronyms in Nickles 1974 illustrates: only two or three of his pageful are still easily recognized. Pyles & Algeo point out other examples: the spate of offsprings patterned on World War IPs snafu are mostly forgotten, although fubar has had at least a temporary revival among computer hackers. |
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