Sometimes they use it to refer to A-S-A-P, and sometimes they use it to refer to A-sap. We say this because this is how people use the word acronym. And we say this not because we're making a judgment call. So we kind of say ASAP could be called an initialism and it could be called an acronym. Of course, though, we do define acronym as an initialism as well. But if you say A-S-A-P, it is very specifically an initialism. If you say A-sap, then it just magically becomes an acronym. So A-S-A-P, we don't say A-sap, although I have said A-sap, actually. For some people, there is a really hard line between an acronym that can be pronounced as a word and an acronym that is identified by its letters. Scuba is "self-contained underwater breathing apparatus." And we have something like D-I-Y, meaning "do it yourself," and A-S-A-P, "as soon as possible," as acronyms, except some people would get really upset if we said that D-I-Y and A-S-A-P are acronyms.īecause we don't pronounce them as their. That's why an acronym is not from specifically the first letter of a set of words. So for example, radar comes from "radio detection and ranging."Īnd the r-a of radar at the beginning is from the first two letters of radio.
An acronym is an abbreviation that is made of the first letter or letters of a series of words. And then we also have acronyms and initialisms.Īcronym is the broader category. Among abbreviations, there's the kind where just random letters get taken out, or not so random, really, like the word a-p-t for "apartment" or a-p-p-t for "appointment." Sometimes they have a period after them, sometimes they do not. We shorten it for convenience or for fun. And abbreviations are kind of word wannabes. On each episode, Merriam-Webster editors Ammon Shea, Peter Sokolowski, and I explore some aspect of the English language from the dictionary's vantage point.Īmong the different variety of lexical items in the English language, we have a category called abbreviations.
I'm Emily Brewster, and Word Matters is produced by Merriam-Webster in collaboration with New England Public Media. When is an abbreviation an acronym, and when is an acronym also an initialism? This episode is all about abbreviations.Ĭoming up on Word Matters, all about abbreviations.
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