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What is your least favourite acronym? (lemmy.nz)
submitted 2 years ago by to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml
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Mine is OOO for Out Of Office. I always misread it in my head like a ghost and it takes me a few seconds to process. It also doesn't translate to speech—you have to say the whole thing.

Interested to see if others have similar acronyms they beef with.

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[–] 9 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Acronyms can be pronounced as words, like NASA and UNESCO; as individual letters, like CIA, TNT, NPC, BLM, and ATM; or as both letters and words, like JPEG (JAY-peg), CSIS (SEE-sis), and IUPAC (I-U-pak). Some are not universally pronounced one way or the other, and it depends on the speaker's preference or the context in which it is being used, such as SQL (either "see-kwel" or "ess-cue-el").

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  • [–] 8 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Come on now. We know this is only because people usually don't know the difference, not because it's correct. Acronyms are pronounced as words, initialisms are spoken one letter at a time. Every article I've clicked says the same thing, confirming what I said. I'm doubling down. 😁

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