←back to thread

180 points beryilma | 1 comments | | HN request time: 0s | source
Show context
miffy900 ◴[] No.41909418[source]
So at the start of each chapter, the book has a table of abbreviations and their definitions, called 'Acronyms'. To whoever wrote or edited the book: please lookup the definition of the word 'acronym': "an abbreviation formed from the initial letters of other words and pronounced as a word (e.g. NASA)." Not all of the abbreviations listed are acronyms! Most are just plain old initialisms.

Since when has anyone ever tried to pronounce 'GPS' as anything other than G-P-S? Also "ECS" = "Ecosystem"? Maybe I'm just crazy but I've never heard or read anyone abbreviate ecosystem as 'ECS'. I've come across ECS as entity component system in video game engines, but never as just 'ecosystem'. Also it's defined exactly once in chapter 5 and then never used again in the book. Why even bother to mention it then?

Oh and publish it as a PDF, but then have no actual page numbers?

replies(1): >>41909837 #
jcarrico ◴[] No.41909837[source]
From Merriam Webster:

a word (such as NATO, radar, or laser) formed from the initial letter or letters of each of the successive parts or major parts of a compound term

also : an abbreviation (such as FBI) formed from initial letters : initialism

It appears the meaning of the word has changed over time.

replies(2): >>41910878 #>>41911876 #
1. floydnoel ◴[] No.41910878[source]
yeah, every time i see somebody call an initialism an acronym i just shrug because you can't argue with words how people use them, irregardless.