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Acronyms, Abbreviations and Text Speak
Does your audience know what you are talking about?
VA AWWA/VWEA Good Laboratory Practice Seminar
July 31, 2018 Charlottesville, VA
Deborah DeBiasi, Virginia DEQ
Deborah.DeBiasi@deq.Virginia.gov 804-698-4028
WHAT IS AN ACRONYM?
• From Wikipedia:
An acronym is a pronounceable word or name formed as an abbreviation from the initial components in a phrase or a word, usually individual letters.
ACRONYMS
• NATO
• LASER
• SCUBA
• 3M
• SONAR
• IRA
• NASCAR
• IKEA
• UNESCO
• UNICEF
• SAR
• North Atlantic Treaty Organization
• Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation
• Self Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus
• Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company
• Sound Navigation And Ranging
• Individual Retirement Account (also abbreviation)
• National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing
• Ingvar Kamprad Elmtaryd Agunnaryd (founder’s name, farm, and
hometown in Sweden)
• United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
• United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund
• Search and Rescue, Student Aid Report, Specific Absorption Rate
ENVIRONMENTAL ABBREVIATIONS USED AS ACRONYMS
• NPDES / VPDES
• LUST / UST
• RCRA
• HAZWOPER
• OSHA
• SWPPP
• SNC
• TSCA
• National/Virginia Pollutant Discharge Elimination System
• Leaking Underground Storage Tanks
• Resource Conservation and Recovery Act
• Hazardous Waste Operations and Emergency Response
• Occupational Safety and Health Administration
• Stormwater Pollution Prevention Plan
• Significant Non-Compliance
• Toxic Substances Control Act
These terms are familiar to you, but do your listeners know what they are?
ACRONYMS FOR LEGISLATION FROM CONGRESS
• ATTIRE (American Textile Technology Innovation and Research for Exportation)
• BEER (Brewers Excise and Economic Relief Act of 2013)
• CINEMA (Captioning and Image Narration to Enhance Movie Accessibility Act)
• DATA (Digital Accountability and Transparency Act of 2013)
• FRESH (Fracturing Regulations are Effective in State Hands Act)
• FUELS (Farmers Undertake Environmental Land Stewardship Act)
• HIRE (Helping Individuals Return to Employment Act)
• Robo COP (Robo Calls Off Phones Act)
• WAVE4 (Waterways Are Vital for the Economy, Energy, Efficiency, and Environment Act of 2013)
• https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/08/congress-acronyms-reins/312565/
MILITARY SLANG THAT ARE ACRONYMS
“G-RATED”
• BOHICA
• FUBAR
• FUBU
• SNAFU
• SUSFU
• TARFU
• AWOL
• Bend Over, Here It Comes Again
• Fouled Up Beyond All Recognition
• Fouled Up Beyond All Understanding
• Situation Normal: All Fouled Up
• Situation Unchanged: Still Fouled Up
• Totally And Royally Fouled Up
• Absent Without Official Leave
OTHER TYPES OF ACRONYMS Pseudo-acronyms
Acronyms or abbreviations that do not stand for anything and cannot be expanded to some meaning.
BBQ – Barbecue
K9 – Canine
Personalized license plates?
Redundant acronyms
RAM memory – Random Access Memory memory
PIN number – Personal Identification Number number
To make an acronym plural, just add
an “s”, no apostrophe needed.
ACRONYMS THAT CHANGE MEANING
Acronym
DVD
GAO
GPO
Original Meaning
Digital video disc
General Accounting Office
Government Printing Office
New Meaning
Digital versatile disc
Government Accountability Office
Government Publishing Office
Always check to make sure you know what the acronym you are
using means today, in the event it has changed.
ACRONYMS WITH UNINTENDED MEANINGS
• Acronyms should be chosen carefully, so that the resulting name is not undesirable. The name the acronym is created from may need to be reconsidered, or rearranged to avoid mishaps.
• People’s initials can form acronyms that can be embarrassing
• One has to be careful that the resulting acronym doesn’t mean something of concern in a foreign language.
Acronym Finder Blog reports that the The National Association of Local Government Auditors (NALGA), based in Lexington, Kentucky, had to change its name to Association of Local Government Auditors (ALGA). NALGA, as ALGA soon realized, means “butt cheeks” or “rump” in Spanish. This made the organization the butt of many jokes.
KEEP AUDIENCE IN MIND WITH ACRONYM USAGE
• For example, Iowa's senior care was called Department of Elder Affairs, or DEA (or Drug
Enforcement Agency). After getting numerous calls about narcotics, they changed the name to the Department on Aging, or DOA (or Dead on
Arrival). That depressed the elderly in
Iowa, so the organization became the
Iowa Department on Aging, or IDA.
ABBREVIATIONS
• A.M. or AM
• P.M. or PM
• RSVP
• ESL
• ASAP (also acronym)
• DIY
• BYOB
• ETA
• DOA
• DEQ
• Latin – ante meridiem, “before noon”
• Latin – post meridiem, “after noon”
• Répondez s'il vous plait
• English as second language
• As soon as possible
• Do it yourself
• Bring your own bottle/booze
• Estimated time of Arrival
• Department of Accounts, Dead on Arrival
• Department of Environmental Quality (State?)
One type of abbreviation is made by taking the first letter of each word of a
longer sentence or phrase. The letters are spelled out, and not read as a word.
ABBREVIATIONS FOR WATER AGENCIES - SOME GET TREATED LIKE ACRONYMS
Water Agencies
• ACWA • WEF • VWEA • ASDWA • ASTSWMO
• CBF • ICPRB
Definition
• Association of Clean Water Administrators • Water Environment Federation • Virginia Water Environment Association • Association of State Drinking Water Administrators • Association of State and Territorial Solid Waste Management
Officials
• Chesapeake Bay Foundation • Interstate Commission on the Potomac River Basin
SYLLABIC ABBREVIATIONS
Very common in the military, government and law enforcement
• SECNAV – Secretary of the Navy
• SECDEF – Secretary of Defense
• NONCOM – Non-commissioned Officer or NCO
• MILTECH – Military Technician
• ELINT – Electronic Intelligence
• MISPER – Missing Person
• CODIS – Combined DNA Index System
• UNSUB – Unknown Subject
• CRASE – Civilian Response to Active Shooter Events
• ALERRT – Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training
ANOTHER FORM OF ABBREVIATION IS A SHORTENED FORM OF A WORD
Common Abbreviations
• Mon. Tues., Wed., Thurs., Fri., Sat., Sun.
• Mr., Mrs., Ms.
• In., ft., yd., cm., ml,
• Ex., vs.,
Uncommon Abbreviations must be defined
• C.dubia – Ceriodaphnia dubia
• Tn Sq – Town Square
DEFINE ABBREVIATIONS SO THEY WON’T BE TAKEN OUT OF CONTEXT
Science Abbreviations
SDS
CFR
COC
CWA
MDL
Scientific Definition
Safety Data Sheets
Code of Federal Regulations
Chain of Custody
Clean Water Act
Method Detection Level
Other Meanings
Students for Democratic Society
Council on Foreign Relations
Continuum of Care (HUD program)
Commission on Cancer
Communications Workers of America
Concerned Women for America
Christopher Wren Association (W&M)
Medical Diagnostic Laboratories
Material Design Life
DEFINE ABBREVIATIONS!!!
Do.?
This is never defined
anywhere in the Code of
Federal Register (CFR).
Do. means “Ditto”
COMPUTER ACRONYMS/ABBREVIATIONS
• GIF
• JPEG
• BIOS
• WYSIWYG
• CD-ROM
• HTTP
• HTML
• HTTP
• Graphics Interchange Format
• Joint Photographic Experts Group
• Basic Input Output System
• What You See Is What You Get
• Compact Disc Read-only Memory
• Hypertext Transfer Protocol
• Portable Document Format
• HyperText Markup Language
• HyperText Transfer Protocol
Acronym
Abbreviation
TEXT SPEAK OR TEXT CHAT - ABBREVIATIONS • GF
• BFF
• LOL
• DL
• TBH
• IMO or IMHO
• WDYMBT
• NSFW
• BRB
• OMG
• BTW
• Girl friend
• Best friend forever
• Laughing out loud
• Down low
• To be honest
• In my (humble) opinion
• What do you mean by that
• Not safe for work
• Be right back
• Oh my Gosh
• By the way
ALTERNATE MEANINGS
BFF – Binary File Format
LOL – Little Old Lady
BRB – Big Red Button
OMG – Outlaw
Motorcycle Gang
BTW – British Traditional
Wicca
FML – Family and
Medical leave
AIRPORT IDENTIFIERS Not technically acronyms, but used that way
Airport
• Sioux City, Iowa Gateway Airport
• Anthony, Kansas Municipal Airport
• Fresno, CA
• Singapore Changi Airport
• Butler Missouri Memorial Airport
• Finley, New South Wales, Australia Airport
• Perm, Russia
• Fukuoka, Kyushu, Japan
• Virginia Airports -
FAA Identifier
• SUX (www.flysux.com)
• ANY
• FAT
• SIN
• BUM
• FLY
• PEE
• FUK
SEATTLE STREETCAR LINE
Streetcar line in Seattle, WA was officially called the South Lake Union Streetcar, but residents called it the South Lake Union Trolley, or SLUT.
In 2009, the Wisconsin
Tourism Federation's biggest
problem wasn't finding a
way to attract more people
to the metropolitan
Kenosha area; it was the
realization that its initials
mirrored the slang
abbreviation for "What the
F---?“ The WTF from
America's Dairyland has
been around since 1979, so
it likely predates the vulgar
WTF. The organization
changed its name to the
Tourism Federation of
Wisconsin, or TFW.
PREVIOUSLY KNOWN AS WTF
THE T.R.O.J.A.N. RESPONSE MILLCREEK TOWNSHIP SCHOOL DISTRICT, PA
Another Pennsylvania school district
distributed buckets of rocks A more typical response is Avoid-Deny-Defend, or Run-
Hide-Fight
SARASOTA, FL
Sarasota County Area Transit.
“Have an enjoyable weekend
SCAT riders, be sure and let us
know where you're SCATing too
this weekend we would love to ..”
SCAT Defined as
1. animal feces
2. Move away quickly
3. Jazz singing with nonsense
syllables
4. Sarasota Bus Service
B.A.R.F.
• Biologically Appropriate Raw Foods for Dogs
• Bay Area Riders Forum
• Binarily Augmented Retro-Framing – from Ironman Tony Stark
• vomit
NORTHERN VIRGINIA GAMERS
SHAG
• Sustainable Housing for Ageless Generations (SHAG)
• Senior Housing Assistance Group (SHAG)
• Located in Seattle and Puget Sound, WA
TO SUMMARIZE… • Acronyms are pronounceable as a word – formed from first letters of
words
• Abbreviations can be formed like acronyms, but used by saying the individual letters; if formed from parts of words, then pronounced as word
• Acronyms and abbreviations mean different things to different people, so tailor your usage to your listeners.
• Be care of naming things that have the ability to become an acronym! Or, work backwards from a word to create a phrase or title.
• ACRONYM – A Creative Representation Of a Notion You Made
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