[Dixonary]CWM as acronym?

[Dodi Schultz]

Judy, all I did was think "aloud," which is definitely permitted, and
comment on the comments of some other players who surmised that it might be
what they called an "acronym". I observed that, for obvious reasons, it
wasn't an acronym, although it might be an initialism.

What "hint"? Since I had absolutely no idea what it meant (if I had, I'd
have been DQ and couldn't have voted), how could I provide a hint?

--Dodi

[Judy Madnick]

----- Original message ----------------------------------------
From: "Dodi Schultz" <schultz (AT) compuserve (DOT) com>
Subject: [Dixonary]CWM as acronym?

<< What "hint"? Since I had absolutely no idea what it meant (if I had, I'd
<< have been DQ and couldn't have voted), how could I provide a hint?

If someone whose opinion I trusted (such as you <G>) implied that, by definition, an acronym could not have certain properties that were displayed by some of the definitions, I felt that it could affect the voting. I, for one, looked up the definition of "acronym" because I thought perhaps I had made an incorrect assumption.

Judy

[Dave Cunningham]

An "initialism" is pronounced "letter by letter" -- I once belonged to TMRC which was pronounced "t'merk" -- thus an acronym. Not an "initialism".

tla

/T-L-A/ n. [Three-Letter Acronym] 1. Self-describing
abbreviation for a species with which computing terminology is
infested. 2. Any confusing acronym. Examples include MCA, FTP,
SNA, CPU, MMU, SCCS, DMU, FPU, NNTP, TLA. People who like this
looser usage argue that not all TLAs have three letters, just as not
all four-letter words have four letters. One also hears of `ETLA'
(Extended Three-Letter Acronym, pronounced /ee tee el ay/) being
used to describe four-letter acronyms. The term `SFLA' (Stupid
Four-Letter Acronym) has also been reported. See also YABA.

The self-effacing phrase "TDM TLA" (Too Damn Many...) is often
used to bemoan the plethora of TLAs in use. In 1989, a random of
the journalistic persuasion asked hacker Paul Boutin "What do you
think will be the biggest problem in computing in the 90s?" Paul's
straight-faced response: "There are only 17,000 three-letter
acronyms." (To be exact, there are 26^3 = 17,576.) There is
probably some karmic justice in the fact that Paul Boutin
subsequently became a journalist.



Source: Jargon File 4.2.0

[Toni Savage]

My feeling was that it was directed at DAVE, not any
of the definitions... HE was the one who called it an
acronym, no?

--- Judy Madnick <email (AT) judyandstu (DOT) com> wrote:

> ----- Original message
> ----------------------------------------
> From: "Dodi Schultz"
> <schultz (AT) compuserve (DOT) com>
> Subject: [Dixonary]CWM as acronym?
>
> << What "hint"? Since I had absolutely no
> idea what it meant (if I had, I'd
> << have been DQ and couldn't have voted),
> how could I provide a hint?
>
> If someone whose opinion I trusted (such as you <G>)
> implied that, by definition, an acronym could not
> have certain properties that were displayed by some
> of the definitions, I felt that it could affect the
> voting. I, for one, looked up the definition of
> "acronym" because I thought perhaps I had made an
> incorrect assumption.
>
> Judy
>


-- Toni Savage

[Toni Savage]

Well, it's certainly possible for an expert to give a
"hint" while guessing... for example, if Wayne said
that a definition was "medically impossible" that
would be a hint.

If a definition had said that "ABC" was an acronmym,
and you say that is lexicographically impossible, it
would influence voting. But in this case, I thought
you were making a comment about Dave's initial
posting, which I think is fine.

TS

--- Dodi Schultz <schultz (AT) compuserve (DOT) com> wrote:

>
> Judy, all I did was think "aloud," which is
> definitely permitted, and
> comment on the comments of some other players who
> surmised that it might be
> what they called an "acronym". I observed that, for
> obvious reasons, it
> wasn't an acronym, although it might be an
> initialism.
>
> What "hint"? Since I had absolutely no idea what it
> meant (if I had, I'd
> have been DQ and couldn't have voted), how could I
> provide a hint?
>
> --Dodi
>


-- Toni Savage