From owner-freebsd-doc  Sat Aug 25 12:53:21 2001
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Date: Sat, 25 Aug 2001 14:53:37 -0500
From: "Deborah G. Lidl" <deborah.lidl@windriver.com>
To: Nik Clayton <nik@FreeBSD.ORG>
Cc: Mark Ovens <marko@FreeBSD.ORG>,
	John Murphy <jfm@blueyonder.co.uk>, doc@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject: Re: <acronym>
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In-Reply-To: <20010817193635.K59279@clan.nothing-going-on.org>; from nik@FreeBSD.ORG on Fri, Aug 17, 2001 at 07:36:35PM +0100
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On Fri, Aug 17, 2001 at 07:36:35PM +0100, Nik Clayton said:
> On Fri, Aug 17, 2001 at 06:32:59PM +0100, Mark Ovens wrote:
> > > An acronym is anything formed from (typically the initial) letters from
> > > a phrase.  
> > 	
> > ...that forms a word (either real or contrived), so BIOS and SCSI are
> > acronyms, but IDE isn't (unless you pronounce it "eyed"), and neither is
> > PCI, IBM, etc.
> 
> What're things like "IDE" referred to then?

Initialisms.  One of the first references that Google provided was the
Dr. Grammar FAQ:

	http://www.drgrammar.org/faq.cfm#25

Of course, the Merriam-Webster dictionary said an initialism is an
acronym made up of the initial letters of a set of words.

Debbie

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