Acronyms are pronounced as individual letters, while initialisms are pronounced as words. The term “acronym” was coined in 1943, but did not become widely used until the 1960s. Abbreviations have become increasingly common in recent decades due to complicated terminology and internet slang. Conventions for writing abbreviations vary, but most use all caps for initials and acronyms.
An acronym or literacy is similar to an acronym, a word in which each letter represents another word. However, in an acronym, each letter is pronounced separately as if the word were written. A commonly heard example is CEO, which stands for “chief executive officer.” CEO is an acronym rather than an acronym because it is pronounced cee-ee-oh rather than cee-oh.
Originally, the word abbreviation referred to any abbreviation formed from initials, regardless of pronunciation. The acronym term, which is now more widely used, was coined by Bell Laboratories in 1943. Although acronym is an older word, attested since 1899 according to the Oxford English Dictionary, it did not come into widespread use until the 1960s. Many people use these terms interchangeably, especially for abbreviations that can be pronounced letter by letter or as a word, such as IRA, pronounced eye-ar-ay or eye-ra.
While abbreviations also existed in the ancient world – for example, SPQR for Senatus Populusque Romanus, the official title of the Roman Empire – they have become increasingly common in recent decades. The proliferation of complicated terminology, especially in the fields of science and technology, has contributed to the convenience of acronyms and acronyms in the modern world. Internet slang and the popularity of text messaging have also added a large number of acronyms to the lexicon.
Conventions for writing abbreviations vary according to style guides and individual usage preferences. Originally, each letter was followed by a period, but many style guides now state that such punctuation is redundant, as is meant by an ellipsis. Others prescribe the use of periods after each letter in an acronym, but not in an acronym (eg, “FBI” vs. “NATO”). Most conventions use all caps for initials and acronyms, although some acronyms may have only the first letter capitalized (e.g. “born”). Acronyms that have been incorporated linguistically as regular words, such as scuba and laser, are not capitalized.
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