Acronym

An acronym is a word or name formed as a type of abbreviation from the initial components of a phrase or a word, usually individual letters, as in NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) or scuba (Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus), sometimes syllables, as in Benelux (Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg), or a mixture of the two, as in radar (RAdio Detection And Ranging).His first glance at the Paris German News told Wiesener that this new paper was nothing like the old P.G.. 'They can call it the P.G.N. if they like', he thought, 'but that's the only difference. Pee-gee-enn; what's the word for words like that, made out of initials? My memory is beginning to fail me. Just the other day there was a technical expression I couldn't remember. I must be growing old. 'P.G. or P.G.N., it's six of one and half a dozen of the other.... Pee-gee-enn. It's an acronym, that's what it is. That's what they call words made up of initials. So I remember it after all; that's at least something.For 'Akronym' used in 1921 or 1922, giving an example of 'Agfa' film: Brockhaus Handbuch des Wissens in vier Bänden. Leipzig, F. A. Brockhaus, v. 1, p. 37.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 pronounced as words ... and those 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 February 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 December 1978. An acronym is a word or name formed as a type of abbreviation from the initial components of a phrase or a word, usually individual letters, as in NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) or scuba (Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus), sometimes syllables, as in Benelux (Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg), or a mixture of the two, as in radar (RAdio Detection And Ranging). There are no universal standards for the multiple names for such abbreviations or for their orthographic styling. Acronyms result from a word formation process known as blending, in which parts of two or more words are combined to form a new word.