545454

Back-formation

In etymology, back-formation is the process of creating a new lexeme by

removing actual or supposed affixes. The resulting neologism is called a back-

formation, a term coined by James Murray in 1889. (OED online first

definition of 'back formation' is from the definition of to burgle, which was

first published in 1889.)

Back-formation is different from clipping – back-formation may change the

part of speech or the word's meaning, whereas clipping creates shortened

words from longer words, but does not change the part of speech or the

meaning of the word.

For example, the noun resurrection was borrowed from Latin, and the verb

resurrect was then backformed hundreds of years later from it by removing

the ion suffix. This segmentation of resurrection into resurrect + ion was

possible because English had examples of Latinate words in the form of verb

and verb+-ion pairs, such as opine/opinion. These became the pattern for

many more such pairs, where a verb derived from a Latin supine stem and a

noun ending in ion entered the language together, such as insert/insertion,

project/projection, etc.

Back-formation may be similar to the reanalyses of folk etymologies when it

rests on an erroneous understanding of the morphology of the longer word.

For example, the singular noun asset is a back-formation from the plural

assets. However, assets is originally not a plural; it is a loan-word from Anglo-

Norman asetz (modern French assez). The -s was reanalyzed as a plural suffix.

Back-formation in the English language

Many words came into English by this route: Pease was once a mass noun but

was reinterpreted as a plural, leading to the back-formation pea. The noun

statistic was likewise a back-formation from the field of study statistics. In

Britain, the verb burgle came into use in the 19th century as a back-formation

from burglar (which can be compared to the North American verb burglarize

formed by suffixation).

Other examples are:

Adjective "couth" from "uncouth"

Verb "edit" from "editor"

Singular "syrinx", plural "syringes" (from Greek): new singular

"syringe" formed

Singular "sastruga", plural "sastrugi" (from Russian): new Latin-type

singular "sastrugus" has been used sometimes

Verbs "euthanase" or "euthanize" from the noun "euthanasia".

Even though many English words are formed this way, new coinages may

sound strange, and are often used for humorous effect. For example, gruntled

(from disgruntled) would be considered a barbarism, and used only in

humorous contexts. The comedian George Gobel regularly used original back-

formations in his humorous monologues. Bill Bryson mused that the English

language would be richer if we could call a tidy-haired person shevelled – as

an opposite to dishevelled.[3] In the American sitcom Scrubs, the character

Turk once said when replying to Dr. Cox, "I don't disdain you! It's quite the

opposite – I dain you."[4]

Back-formations frequently begin in colloquial use and only gradually become

accepted. For example, enthuse (from enthusiasm) is gaining popularity,

though it is still considered substandard by some today.

The immense celebrations in Britain at the news of the relief of the Siege of

Mafeking briefly created the verb to maffick, meaning to celebrate both

extravagantly and publicly. "Maffick" is a back-formation from Mafeking, a

place-name that was treated humorously as a gerund or participle. There are

many other examples of back-formations in the English language.

Acronyms

Acronyms and initialisms are abbreviations formed from the initial

components in a phrase or name. These components may be individual letters

(as in CEO) or parts of words (as in Benelux and Ameslan). There is no

universal agreement on the precise definition of the various terms (see

nomenclature), nor on written usage (see orthographic styling). While popular

in recent English, such abbreviations have historical use in English as well as

other languages. As a type of word formation process, acronyms and

initialisms are viewed as a subtype of blending.

Nomenclature

The term acronym is the name for a word created from the first letters of each

word in a series of words (such as sonar, created from sound navigation and

ranging).[1] Attestations for "Akronym" in German are known from 1921, and

for "acronym" in English from 1940.[2] While the word abbreviation refers to

any shortened form of a word or a phrase, some have used initialism or

alphabetism to refer to an abbreviation formed simply from, and used simply

as, a string of initials.

Although the term acronym is widely used to describe any abbreviation

formed from initial letters, most dictionaries define acronym to mean "a

word" in its original sense, while some include a secondary indication of

usage, attributing to acronym the same meaning as that of initialism.

According to the primary definition found in most dictionaries, examples of

acronyms are NATO (/ n e ɪ t o ʊ / ), scuba (/ s k u b ə / ), and radar (/ r e ɪ d ɑ r / ), while

examples of initialisms are FBI (/ ɛ f b i a ɪ / ) and HTML (/ e ɪ t ʃ t i ɛ m ɛ l / ). There is

no agreement on what to call abbreviations whose pronunciation involves the

combination of letter names and words, such as JPEG (/ d ʒ e ɪ p ɛ ɡ / ) and MS-

DOS (/ ɛ m ɛ s d ɒ s / ). There is also some disagreement as to what to call

abbreviations that some speakers pronounce as letters and others pronounce

as a word. For example, the terms URL and IRA can be pronounced as

individual letters: / ̩ juː ̩ ɑ r ̍ ɛ l / and / ̩ a ɪ ̩ ɑ r ̍ e ɪ / , respectively; or as a single

word: / ̍ ɜ r l / and / ̍ a ɪ ər ə / , respectively. Such constructions, however—

regardless of how they are pronounced—if formed from initials, may be

identified as initialisms without controversy. The spelled-out form of an

acronym or initialism (that is, "what it stands for") is called its expansion.

Comparing a few examples of each type

Pronounced as a word, containing only initial letters

o AIDS : acquired immune deficiency syndrome

o ASBO : Antisocial Behaviour Order

o NATO : North Atlantic Treaty Organization

o Scuba : self-contained underwater breathing apparatus

o Laser : Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation

Pronounced as a word, containing non-initial letters

o Amphetamine : alpha-methyl-phenethylamine

o Gestapo : Geheime Staatspolizei (secret state police)

o Interpol : International Criminal Police Organization

o Mavica : Magnetic video camera

o Nabisco : National Biscuit Company

Pronounced as a word, containing a mixture of initial and non-initial

letters

o Necco : New England Confectionery Company

o Radar : radio detection and ranging

Pronounced as a word or names of letters, depending on speaker or

context

o FAQ : ([fæk] or F A Q) frequently asked questions

o IRA : When used for Individual Retirement Account, can be

pronounced as letters (I R A) or as a word [ˈaɪrə].

o SAT : ([sæt] or S A T) (previously) Scholastic Achievement (or

Aptitude) Test(s), now claimed not to stand for anything.[11]

o SQL : ([siːkwəl] or S Q L) Structured Query Language.

Pronounced as a combination of names of letters and a word

o CD-ROM : (C-D-[rɒm]) Compact Disc read-only memory

o IUPAC : (I-U-[pæk]) International Union of Pure and Applied

Chemistry

o JPEG : (J-[pɛɡ]) Joint Photographic Experts Group

o SFMOMA : (S-F-[moʊmə]) San Francisco Museum of Modern

Art

o DSCAM : (dee-scam) Down Syndrome Cell Adhesion Molecule

Pronounced only as the names of letters

o BBC : British Broadcasting Corporation

o DNA : deoxyribonucleic acid

o OEM : Original Equipment Manufacturer

o USA : United States of America

o IRA : When used for the Irish Republican Army or organisations

claiming descent from this group

Pronounced as the names of letters but with a shortcut

o AAA:

(triple A) American Automobile Association; abdominal

aortic aneurysm; anti-aircraft artillery; Asistencia Asesoría

y Administración

(three As) Amateur Athletic Association

o IEEE : (I triple E) Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers

o NAACP : (N double A C P) National Association for the

Advancement of Colored People

o NCAA : (N C double A or N C two A or N C A A) National

Collegiate Athletic Association

Shortcut incorporated into name

o 3M : (three M) originally Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing

Company

o E3 : (E three) Electronic Entertainment Exposition

o W3C : (W three C) World Wide Web Consortium

o C4ISTAR : (C four I star) Command, Control, Communications,

Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance, Target Acquisition, and

Reconnaissance[12]

Multi-layered acronyms

o NAC Breda : (Dutch football club) NOAD ADVENDO Combinatie

("NOAD ADVENDO Combination"), formed by the 1912 merger

of two clubs, NOAD (Nooit Opgeven Altijd Doorgaan "Never give

up, always persevere") and ADVENDO (Aangenaam Door

Vermaak En Nuttig Door Ontspanning "Pleasant for its

entertainment and useful for its relaxation") from Breda[13][14]

o GAIM : GTK+ AOL Instant Messenger

o GIMP : GNU Image Manipulation Program

o PAC-3 : PATRIOT Advanced Capability 3 i.e., Phased Array

Tracking RADAR Intercept on Target i.e., RAdio Detection And

Ranging

o VHDL : VHSIC hardware description language, where VHSIC

stands for very-high-speed integrated circuit.

Recursive acronyms , in which the abbreviation refers to itself

o GNU : GNU's not Unix!

o LAME : LAME Ain't an MP3 Encoder

o WINE : WINE Is Not an Emulator

o PHP : PHP hypertext pre-processor (formerly personal home page)

o These may go through multiple layers before the self-reference is

found:

HURD : HIRD of Unix-replacing daemons, where "HIRD"

stands for "HURD of interfaces representing depth"

Pseudo-acronyms , which consist of a sequence of characters that, when

pronounced as intended, invoke other, longer words with less typing

(see also Internet slang)

o CQ : "Seek you", a code used by radio operators (also is an

editorial term meaning "Copy Qualified" in print media)

o IOU : "I owe you" (true acronym would be IOY)

o K9 : "Canine", used to designate police units utilizing dogs

o Q8 : "Kuwait"

Initialisms whose last abbreviated word is often redundantly included

anyway

o ATM machine: Automated Teller Machine machine

o DSW Shoe Warehouse: Designer Shoe Warehouse Shoe

Warehouse

o HIV virus: Human Immunodeficiency Virus virus

o PAN number: Permanent Account Number number

o PIN number: Personal Identification Number number

o VIN number: Vehicle Identification Number number

[edit] Historical and current use

Acronymy, like retronymy, is a linguistic process that has existed throughout

history but for which there was little to no naming, conscious attention, or

systematic analysis until relatively recent times. Like retronymy, it became

much more common in the 20th century than it had formerly been.

Ancient examples of acronymy (regardless of whether there was

metalanguage at the time to describe it) include the following:

Initialisms were used in Rome before the Christian era. For example,

the official name for the Roman Empire, and the Republic before it, was

abbreviated as SPQR (Senatus Populusque Romanus).

The early Christians in Rome used the image of a fish as a symbol for

Jesus in part because of an acronym—fish in Greek is ΙΧΘΥΣ (ichthys),

which was said to stand for Ἰησοῦς Χριστός Θεοῦ Υἱός Σωτήρ (Iesous

CHristos THeou (h) Uios Soter: Jesus Christ, God's Son, Savior).

Evidence of this interpretation dates from the 2nd and 3rd centuries

and is preserved in the catacombs of Rome. And for centuries, the

Church has used the inscription INRI over the crucifix, which stands for

the Latin Iesus Nazarenus Rex Iudaeorum ("Jesus the Nazarene, King of

the Jews").

The Hebrew language has a long history of formation of acronyms

pronounced as words, stretching back many centuries. The Hebrew

Bible ("Old Testament") is known as "Tanakh", an acronym composed

from the Hebrew initial letters of its three major sections : Torah (five

books of Moses), Nevi'im (prophets), and K'tuvim (writings). Many

rabbinical figures from the Middle Ages onward are referred to in

rabbinical literature by their pronounced acronyms, such as Rambam

(aka Maimonides, from the initial letters of his full Hebrew name

(Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon) and Rashi (Rabbi Shlomo Yitzkhaki).

During the mid to late 19th century, an initialism-disseminating trend spread

through the American and European business communities: abbreviating

corporation names in places where space was limited for writing — such as on

the sides of railroad cars (e.g., Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac

Railroad → RF&P); on the sides of barrels and crates; and on ticker tape and

in the small-print newspaper stock listings that got their data from it (e.g.,

American Telephone and Telegraph Company → AT&T). Some well-known

commercial examples dating from the 1890s through 1920s include Nabisco

(National Biscuit Company),[15] Esso (from S.O., from Standard Oil), and

Sunoco (Sun Oil Company).

The widespread, frequent use of acronyms and initialisms across the whole

range of registers is a relatively new linguistic phenomenon in most languages,

becoming increasingly evident since the mid-20th century. As literacy rates

rose, and as advances in science and technology brought with them a constant

stream of new (and sometimes more complex) terms and concepts, the

practice of abbreviating terms became increasingly convenient. The Oxford

English Dictionary (OED) records the first printed use of the word initialism

as occurring in 1899, but it did not come into general use until 1965, well after

acronym had become common.

By 1943, the term acronym had been used in English to recognize

abbreviations (and contractions of phrases) that were pronounced as words.[15]

(It was formed from the Greek words ἄκρος, akros, "topmost, extreme" and

ὄνομα, onoma, "name.") For example, the army offense of being absent

without official leave was abbreviated to "A.W.O.L." in reports, but when

pronounced as a word ('awol'), it became an acronym.[16] While initial letters

are commonly used to form an acronym, the original definition was a word

made from the initial letters or syllables of other words,[17] for example UNIVAC

from UNIVersal Automatic Computer.[18]

In English, acronyms pronounced as words may be a 20th-century

phenomenon. Linguist David Wilton in Word Myths: Debunking Linguistic

Urban Legends claims that "forming words from acronyms is a distinctly

twentieth- (and now twenty-first-) century phenomenon. There is only one

known pre-twentieth-century [English] word with an acronymic origin and it

was in vogue for only a short time in 1886. The word is colinderies or colinda,

an acronym for the Colonial and Indian Exposition held in London in that

year."[19][20]

[edit] Early examples in English

The use of Latin and Neo-Latin terms in vernaculars has been pan-

European and predates modern English. Some examples of initialisms

in this class are:

o A.M. (from Latin ante meridiem, "before noon") and P.M. (from

Latin post meridiem, "after noon")

o A.D. (from Latin Anno Domini, "in the year of our Lord") (whose

complement in English, B.C. [Before Christ], is English-sourced)

O.K. , a term of disputed origin, dating back at least to the early 19th

century, now used around the world

The etymology of the word alphabet itself comes to Middle English from

the Late Latin Alphabetum, which in turn derives from the Ancient

Greek Alphabetos, from alpha and beta, the first two letters of the Greek

alphabet.[21] In colloquial terms, learning the alphabet is called learning

one's ABCs.

[edit] Current use

Acronyms and initialisms are used most often to abbreviate names of

organizations and long or frequently referenced terms. The armed forces and

government agencies frequently employ initialisms (and occasionally,

acronyms); some well-known examples from the United States are among the

"alphabet agencies" created by Franklin D. Roosevelt under the New Deal.

Business and industry also are prolific coiners of acronyms and initialisms.

The rapid advance of science and technology in recent centuries seems to be

an underlying force driving the usage, as new inventions and concepts with

multiword names create a demand for shorter, more manageable names. One

representative example, from the U.S. Navy, is COMCRUDESPAC, which

stands for commander, cruisers destroyers Pacific; it's also seen as

"ComCruDesPac". "YABA-compatible" (where YABA stands for "yet

another bloody acronym") is used to mean that a term's acronym can be

pronounced but is not an offensive word (e.g., "When choosing a new name,

be sure it is "YABA-compatible").[22]

The use of initialisms has been further popularized with the emergence of

Short Message Systems (SMS). To fit messages into the 160-Character limit of

SMS, initialisms such as "GF" (girl friend), "LOL" (laughing out loud), and

"DL" (download or down low) have been popularized into the mainstream.[23]

Although prescriptivist disdain for such neologism is fashionable, and can be

useful when the goal is protecting message receivers from crypticness, it is

scientifically groundless when couched as preserving the "purity" or

"legitimacy" of language; this neologism is merely the latest instance of a

perennial linguistic principle—the same one that in the 19th century

prompted the aforementioned abbreviation of corporation names in places

where space for writing was limited (e.g., ticker tape, newspaper column

inches).

[edit] Aids to learning the expansion without leaving a document

The expansion is typically given at the first occurrence of the acronym within

a given text, for the benefit of those readers who do not know what it stands

for. The capitalization of the original term is independent of it being

acronymized, being lowercase for a term such as frequently asked questions

(FAQ) but uppercase for a proper name such as the United Nations (UN).

In addition to expansion at first use, some publications also have a key listing

all acronyms or initialisms used therein and what their expansions are. This is

a convenience to readers for two reasons. The first is that if they are not

reading the entire publication sequentially (which is a common mode of

reading), then they may encounter an acronym without having seen its

expansion. Having a key at the start or end of the publication obviates

skimming over the text searching for an earlier use to find the expansion.

(This is especially important in the print medium, where no search utility is

available.) The second reason for the key feature is its pedagogical value in

educational works such as textbooks. It gives students a way to review the

meanings of the acronyms introduced in a chapter after they have done the

line-by-line reading, and also a way to quiz themselves on the meanings (by

covering up the expansion column and recalling the expansions from memory,

then checking their answers by uncovering.)

Expansion at first use and the abbreviation-key feature are aids to the reader

that originated in the print era, and they are equally useful in print and

online. In addition, the online medium offers yet more aids, such as tooltips

and hyperlinks.

[edit] Jargon

Acronyms and initialisms often occur in jargon. An initialism may have

different meanings in different areas of industry, writing, and scholarship.

The general reason for this is convenience and succinctness for specialists,

although it has led some to obfuscate the meaning either intentionally, to deter

those without such domain-specific knowledge, or unintentionally, by creating

an initialism that already existed.

The medical literature has been struggling to control the proliferation of

acronyms as their use has evolved from aiding communication to hindering it.

This has become such a problem that it is even evaluated at the level of

medical academies such as the American Academy of Dermatology. [24]

[edit] As Mnemonics

Acronyms and initialisms are often taught as mnemonic devices, for example

in physics the colors of the visible spectrum are ROY G. BIV (red-orange-

yellow-green-blue-indigo-violet). They are also used as mental checklists, for

example in aviation: GUMPS, which is Gas-Undercarriage-Mixture-

Propeller-Seatbelts. Other examples of mnemonic acronyms and initialisms

include CAN SLIM, and PAVPANIC.

[edit] Acronyms as legendary etymology

See also: Backronym

It is not uncommon for acronyms to be cited in a kind of false etymology,

called a folk etymology, for a word. Such etymologies persist in popular

culture but have no factual basis in historical linguistics, and are examples of

language-related urban legends. For example, cop is commonly cited as being

derived, it is presumed, from "constable on patrol,"[25] posh from "port out,

starboard home",[26] and golf from "gentlemen only, ladies forbidden".[26][27]

Taboo words in particular commonly have such false etymologies: shit from

"ship/store high in transit"[19][28] or "special high-intensity training" and fuck

from "for unlawful carnal knowledge", or "fornication under consent of the

king".[28]

ABBREVIATION

An abbreviation (from Latin brevis, meaning short) is a shortened form of a

word or phrase. Usually, but not always, it consists of a letter or group of

letters taken from the word or phrase. For example, the word abbreviation can

itself be represented by the abbreviation abbr., abbrv. or abbrev.

In strict analysis, abbreviations should not be confused with contractions or

acronyms (including initialisms), with which they share some semantic and

phonetic functions, though all three are connoted by the term "abbreviation"

in loose parlance.[1]:p167An abbreviation is a shortening by any method; a

contraction is a reduction of size by the drawing together of the parts. A

contraction of a word is made by omitting certain letters or syllables and

bringing together the first and last letters or elements; an abbreviation may

be made either by omitting certain portions from the interior or by cutting off

a part. A contraction is an abbreviation, but an abbreviation is not necessarily

a contraction. However, normally acronyms are regarded as a subgroup of

abbreviations (e.g. by the Council of Science Editors).

Abbreviations can also be used to give a different context to the word itself,

such as "PIN Number" (wherein if the abbreviation were removed the context

would be invalid).

Abbreviation has been used as long as phonetic script has existed, in some

senses actually being more common in early literacy, where spelling out a

whole word was often avoided, initial letters commonly being used to

represent words in specific application. By classical Greece and Rome, the

reduction of words to single letters was still normal, but can default.[clarification

needed]

An increase in literacy has, historically, sometimes spawned a trend toward

abbreviation. The standardization of English in the 15th through 17th

centuries included such a growth in the use of abbreviation.[2] At first,

abbreviations were sometimes represented with various suspension signs, not

only periods. For example, sequences like ‹er› were replaced with ‹ɔ›, as in

‹mastɔ› for master and ‹exacɔbate› for exacerbate. While this may seem

trivial, it was symptomatic of an attempt by people manually reproducing

academic texts to reduce the copy time. An example from the Oxford

University Register, 1503:

Mastɔ subwardenɔ y ɔmēde me to you. And wherɔ y wrot to you the last

wyke that y trouyde itt good to differrɔ thelectionɔ ovɔ to quīdenaɔ tinitatis y

have be thougħt me synɔ that itt woll be thenɔ a bowte mydsomɔ.

During the growth of philological linguistic theory in academic Britain,

abbreviating became very fashionable. The use of abbreviation for the names

of "Father of modern etymology"[citation needed] J. R. R. Tolkien and his friend C.

S. Lewis, and other members of the Oxford literary group known as the

Inklings, are sometimes cited as symptomatic of this.[citation needed] Likewise, a

century earlier in Boston, a fad of abbreviation started that swept the United

States, with the globally popular term OK generally credited as a remnant of

its influence.[3][4]

After World War II, the British greatly reduced their use of the full stop and

other punctuation points after abbreviations in at least semi-formal writing,

while the Americans more readily kept such use until more recently, and still

maintain it more than Britons. The classic example, considered by their

American counterparts quite curious, was the maintenance of the internal

comma in a British organisation of secret agents called the "Special

Operations, Executive" — "S.O.,E" — which is not found in histories written

after about 1960.

But before that, many Britons were more scrupulous at maintaining the

French form. In French, the period only follows an abbreviation if the last

letter in the abbreviation is not the last letter of its antecedent: "M." is the

abbreviation for "monsieur" while "Mme" is that for "madame". Like many

other cross-channel linguistic acquisitions, many Britons readily took this up

and followed this rule themselves, while the Americans took a simpler rule

and applied it rigorously.[citation needed]

Over the years, however, the lack of convention in some style guides has made

it difficult to determine which two-word abbreviations should be abbreviated

with periods and which should not. The U.S. media tend to use periods in two-

word abbreviations like United States (U.S.), but not personal computer (PC)

or television (TV). Many British publications have gradually done away with

the use of periods in abbreviations.

Minimization of punctuation in typewritten material became economically

desirable in the 1960s and 1970s for the many users of carbon-film ribbons,

since a period or comma consumed the same length of non-reusable expensive

ribbon as did a capital letter.

Widespread use of electronic communication through mobile phones and the

Internet during the 1990s allowed for a marked rise in colloquial

abbreviation. This was due largely to increasing popularity of textual

communication services such as instant- and text messaging. SMS, for

instance, supports message lengths of 160 characters at most (using the GSM

03.38 character set). This brevity gave rise to an informal abbreviation

scheme sometimes called Textese, with which 10% or more of the words in a

typical SMS message are abbreviated.[5] More recently Twitter, a popular

social network service, began driving abbreviation use with 140 character

message limits.

[edit] Style conventions in English

In modern English there are several conventions for abbreviations, and the

choice may be confusing. The only rule universally accepted is that one should

be consistent, and to make this easier, publishers express their preferences in a

style guide. Questions which arise include those in the following subsections.

[edit] Lowercase letters

If the original word was capitalised, then the first letter of its abbreviation

should retain the capital, for example Lev. for Leviticus. When abbreviating

words that are originally spelled with lower case letters, there is no need for

capitalisation.

[edit] Periods (full stops) and spaces

A period (full stop) is sometimes written after an abbreviated word, but there

are exceptions and a general lack of consensus about when this should

happen.

In British English, according to Hart's Rules, the general rule is that

abbreviations (in the narrow sense that includes only words with the ending,

and not the middle, dropped) terminate with a full stop (period), whereas

contractions (in the sense of words missing a middle part) do not.[1]:p167

Example Category Short form Source

Doctor Contraction Dr D–r

Professor Abbreviation Prof. Prof...

The ReverendContraction (or

Abbreviation)Revd (or Rev.) Rev–d

The Right HonourableContraction and

AbbreviationRt Hon. R–t Hon...

In American English, the period is usually included. In some cases periods are

optional, as in either US or U.S. for United States, EU or E.U. for European

Union, and UN or U.N. for United Nations.

A third standard removes the full stops from all abbreviations. The U.S.

Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices advises that periods should not

be used with abbreviations on road signs, except for cardinal directions as

part of a destination name. (For example, "Northwest Blvd", "W. Jefferson",

and "PED XING" all follow this recommendation.)

Acronyms that were originally capitalised (with or without periods) but have

since entered the vocabulary as generic words are no longer written with

capital letters nor with any periods. Examples are sonar, radar, lidar, laser,

snafu, and scuba.

Spaces are generally not used between single letter abbreviations of words in

the same phrase, so one almost never encounters "U. S.".

When an abbreviation appears at the end of a sentence, only one period is

used: The capital of the United States is Washington, D.C.

[edit] Plural forms

To form the plural of an abbreviation, a number, or a capital letter used as a

noun, simply add a lowercase s to the end.

A group of MPs

The roaring 20s

Mind your Ps and Qs

To indicate the plural of the abbreviation of a unit of measure, the same form

is used as in the singular.

1 lb or 20 lb.

1 ft or 16 ft.

1 min or 45 min.

When an abbreviation contains more than one full point, Hart's Rules

recommends to put the s after the final one.

Ph.D.s

M.Phil.s

the d.t.s

However, subject to any house style or consistency requirement, the same

plurals may be rendered less formally as:

PhDs

MPhils

the DTs. (This is the recommended form in the New Oxford Dictionary

for Writers and Editors.)

According to Hart's Rules, an apostrophe may be used in rare cases where

clarity calls for it, for example when letters or symbols are referred to as

objects.

The x's of the equation

Dot the i's and cross the t's

However, the apostrophe can be dispensed with if the items are set in italics or

quotes:

The xs of the equation

Dot the 'i's and cross the 't's

In Latin, and continuing to the derivative forms in European

languages as well as English, single-letter abbreviations had the

plural being a doubling of the letter for note-taking. Most of these

deal with writing and publishing. A few longer abbreviations use

this as well.

Singular

abbreviationSingular Word

Plural

abbreviationPlural Word Discipline

d. didot dd. didots typography

f.following line

or pageff.

following lines

or pagesnotes

F. folio Ff. folios literature

h. hand hh. hands horse height

l. line ll. lines notes

MS manuscript MSS manuscripts notes

op. opus opp. opera notes

p. page pp. pages notes

P. pope PP. popes

Q. quarto Qq. quartos literature

s. (or §) section ss. (or §§) sections notes

v. volume vv. volumes notes