This is a short review of what, in English, is meant by the confusable terms, ‘Abbreviation’, ‘Initialism’ and ‘Acronym’ according to the best primary sources available to me this afternoon. What would be really useful would be a review to determine actual current usage, but I don’t have the means to do that right now.
Ultimately your view on this will depend on whether you believe that language should be prescriptive or adaptive, I can’t help you with that.
I also briefly look at what the W3C has to say about this, so if you’re producing HTML documents which contain abbreviations and acronyms, you’re able to get the semantics as correct as can be done at present.
I’ve heard about the question of ‘pronouncability’ surrounding acronyms for some time — it’s only an acronym if it’s pronounceable. I suspected that this was incorrect (because it’s not what I was taught in school, which obviously makes me right). After a few tweets on the subject, I decided to settle the matter once and for all, and graciously admit defeat if necessary. I consulted a few primary sources to see how they defined ‘acronym’ and ‘abbreviation’; and in the process learnt a new word: ‘initialism’, which clears things up a bit.
As some of these definitions aren’t easily linkable online, I’ll summarise here:
| Abbreviation | Acronym | Initialism | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Oxford | “an abbreviated form, esp. a shortened form of a word or phrase” |
“a word, usu. pronounced as such, formed from the initial letters of other words” |
“a group of initial letters used as an abbreviation for a name or expression, each letter being pronounced separately (cf. Acronym)” |
| Collins | “A shortened or contracted form of a word or phrase used in place of the whole” |
“A pronounceable name made up of a series of initial letters or parts of words” |
N/A |
| Dictionary.com | “a shortened or contracted form of a word or phrase, used to represent the whole” |
“a word formed from the initial letters or groups of letters of words in a set phrase or series of words” |
|
All sources agree that an abbreviation is a ‘shortening’, which will hopefully surprise no-one.
According to Oxford, an acronym may be pronounceable (‘usually’). Collins insists on pronounceability, and dictionary.com makes no reference to it.
To refine our understanding of acronym, we can look at the definitions for the related ‘initialism’: Oxford is consistent with itself, indicating that an initialism has separately-pronounceable letters. Collins is no help, and Dictionary.com is inconsistent not only with Oxford, but also with itself — initialisms are either pronounced as a word, or as separate letters, and we don’t care how acronyms are pronounced
A limited review of primary sources shows a trend towards acronyms being pronouceable. If initialisms were consistenly defined, I᾿d see this as a strong trend (example and counter-example). This is where the question of real-world use comes in: what do the majority of people mean when they say ‘acronym’? And what would they mean if they said ‘initialism’ at all? I was unaware of initialisms until today, so I meant ‘acronym’ to mean the subset of abbreviations which are formed by initial letters, with no question of pronunciation. I don’t like the word ‘initialism’, but I do like how it clarifies the meaning of ‘acronym’, so I’m going to start using it. I’ve also decided that initialisms and acronyms are distinct subsets of abbreviations: Acronyms are pronounceable abbreviations formed from initial letters, Initialisations are abbreviations formed from initial letters, which cannot be pronounced as a word.
Ultimately, this is is language. Definitions are wildly inconsistent everywhere, and even when primary sources agree on consistency, actual usage, at least with someone, somewhere will be inconsistent. A lot of students would do well to remember this and chill out, as would you, if you’ve read this far hoping for an incontravertible confirmation of your beliefs.
It depends on what you believe is right. If you agree that Acronyms and Initialisms are distinct subsets, then the most correct tag you have at your disposal is <abbr>...</abbr>. If you don’t believe in pronounceability as a criteria for an acronym, or you believe that acronyms and initialisms are subsets of eachother (according to your definition), then in some circumstances, you can mark up an initialism as an acronym.
Really, we could do with consensus (never likely), and an initialism tag for people who care (me)
I was going to make this section fairly expansive, but Cennnydd Bowles sent me this article by Ben Meadowcroft, which is far more thorough than anything I had planned.
I asked two of the professional writers I work with to share their views and opinions. Pez was clear that an acronym “must be pronounceable”, and was shocked that I was unaware of initialisms. The other was shocked that initialisms existed, and thought acronyms were the subset of abbreviations which are created by initial letters.
The professionals disagree, the dictionaries disagree, so no-one should hate you if you disagree through ignorance or choice. All we can take in summary is:
Chris / 03.12.08