Acronyms, Abbreviations and Text Speak

Does your audience know what you are talking about?

VA AWWA/VWEA Good Laboratory Practice Seminar

July 31, 2018 Charlottesville, VA

Deborah DeBiasi, Virginia DEQ

Deborah.DeBiasi@deq.Virginia.gov 804-698-4028

WHAT IS AN ACRONYM?

• From Wikipedia:

An acronym is a pronounceable word or name formed as an abbreviation from the initial components in a phrase or a word, usually individual letters.

ACRONYMS

• NATO

• LASER

• SCUBA

• 3M

• SONAR

• IRA

• NASCAR

• IKEA

• UNESCO

• UNICEF

• SAR

• North Atlantic Treaty Organization

• Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation

• Self Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus

• Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company

• Sound Navigation And Ranging

• Individual Retirement Account (also abbreviation)

• National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing

• Ingvar Kamprad Elmtaryd Agunnaryd (founder’s name, farm, and

hometown in Sweden)

• United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization

• United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund

• Search and Rescue, Student Aid Report, Specific Absorption Rate

ENVIRONMENTAL ABBREVIATIONS USED AS ACRONYMS

• NPDES / VPDES

• LUST / UST

• RCRA

• HAZWOPER

• OSHA

• SWPPP

• SNC

• TSCA

• National/Virginia Pollutant Discharge Elimination System

• Leaking Underground Storage Tanks

• Resource Conservation and Recovery Act

• Hazardous Waste Operations and Emergency Response

• Occupational Safety and Health Administration

• Stormwater Pollution Prevention Plan

• Significant Non-Compliance

• Toxic Substances Control Act

These terms are familiar to you, but do your listeners know what they are?

ACRONYMS FOR LEGISLATION FROM CONGRESS

• ATTIRE (American Textile Technology Innovation and Research for Exportation)

• BEER (Brewers Excise and Economic Relief Act of 2013)

• CINEMA (Captioning and Image Narration to Enhance Movie Accessibility Act)

• DATA (Digital Accountability and Transparency Act of 2013)

• FRESH (Fracturing Regulations are Effective in State Hands Act)

• FUELS (Farmers Undertake Environmental Land Stewardship Act)

• HIRE (Helping Individuals Return to Employment Act)

• Robo COP (Robo Calls Off Phones Act)

• WAVE4 (Waterways Are Vital for the Economy, Energy, Efficiency, and Environment Act of 2013)

• https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/08/congress-acronyms-reins/312565/

MILITARY SLANG THAT ARE ACRONYMS

“G-RATED”

• BOHICA

• FUBAR

• FUBU

• SNAFU

• SUSFU

• TARFU

• AWOL

• Bend Over, Here It Comes Again

• Fouled Up Beyond All Recognition

• Fouled Up Beyond All Understanding

• Situation Normal: All Fouled Up

• Situation Unchanged: Still Fouled Up

• Totally And Royally Fouled Up

• Absent Without Official Leave

OTHER TYPES OF ACRONYMS Pseudo-acronyms

Acronyms or abbreviations that do not stand for anything and cannot be expanded to some meaning.

BBQ – Barbecue

K9 – Canine

Personalized license plates?

Redundant acronyms

RAM memory – Random Access Memory memory

PIN number – Personal Identification Number number

To make an acronym plural, just add

an “s”, no apostrophe needed.

ACRONYMS THAT CHANGE MEANING

Acronym

DVD

GAO

GPO

Original Meaning

Digital video disc

General Accounting Office

Government Printing Office

New Meaning

Digital versatile disc

Government Accountability Office

Government Publishing Office

Always check to make sure you know what the acronym you are

using means today, in the event it has changed.

ACRONYMS WITH UNINTENDED MEANINGS

• Acronyms should be chosen carefully, so that the resulting name is not undesirable. The name the acronym is created from may need to be reconsidered, or rearranged to avoid mishaps.

• People’s initials can form acronyms that can be embarrassing

• One has to be careful that the resulting acronym doesn’t mean something of concern in a foreign language.

Acronym Finder Blog reports that the The National Association of Local Government Auditors (NALGA), based in Lexington, Kentucky, had to change its name to Association of Local Government Auditors (ALGA). NALGA, as ALGA soon realized, means “butt cheeks” or “rump” in Spanish. This made the organization the butt of many jokes.

KEEP AUDIENCE IN MIND WITH ACRONYM USAGE

• For example, Iowa's senior care was called Department of Elder Affairs, or DEA (or Drug

Enforcement Agency). After getting numerous calls about narcotics, they changed the name to the Department on Aging, or DOA (or Dead on

Arrival). That depressed the elderly in

Iowa, so the organization became the

Iowa Department on Aging, or IDA.

ABBREVIATIONS

• A.M. or AM

• P.M. or PM

• RSVP

• ESL

• ASAP (also acronym)

• DIY

• BYOB

• ETA

• DOA

• DEQ

• Latin – ante meridiem, “before noon”

• Latin – post meridiem, “after noon”

• Répondez s'il vous plait

• English as second language

• As soon as possible

• Do it yourself

• Bring your own bottle/booze

• Estimated time of Arrival

• Department of Accounts, Dead on Arrival

• Department of Environmental Quality (State?)

One type of abbreviation is made by taking the first letter of each word of a

longer sentence or phrase. The letters are spelled out, and not read as a word.

ABBREVIATIONS FOR WATER AGENCIES - SOME GET TREATED LIKE ACRONYMS

Water Agencies

• ACWA • WEF • VWEA • ASDWA • ASTSWMO

• CBF • ICPRB

Definition

• Association of Clean Water Administrators • Water Environment Federation • Virginia Water Environment Association • Association of State Drinking Water Administrators • Association of State and Territorial Solid Waste Management

Officials

• Chesapeake Bay Foundation • Interstate Commission on the Potomac River Basin

SYLLABIC ABBREVIATIONS

Very common in the military, government and law enforcement

• SECNAV – Secretary of the Navy

• SECDEF – Secretary of Defense

• NONCOM – Non-commissioned Officer or NCO

• MILTECH – Military Technician

• ELINT – Electronic Intelligence

• MISPER – Missing Person

• CODIS – Combined DNA Index System

• UNSUB – Unknown Subject

• CRASE – Civilian Response to Active Shooter Events

• ALERRT – Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training

ANOTHER FORM OF ABBREVIATION IS A SHORTENED FORM OF A WORD

Common Abbreviations

• Mon. Tues., Wed., Thurs., Fri., Sat., Sun.

• Mr., Mrs., Ms.

• In., ft., yd., cm., ml,

• Ex., vs.,

Uncommon Abbreviations must be defined

• C.dubia – Ceriodaphnia dubia

• Tn Sq – Town Square

DEFINE ABBREVIATIONS SO THEY WON’T BE TAKEN OUT OF CONTEXT

Science Abbreviations

SDS

CFR

COC

CWA

MDL

Scientific Definition

Safety Data Sheets

Code of Federal Regulations

Chain of Custody

Clean Water Act

Method Detection Level

Other Meanings

Students for Democratic Society

Council on Foreign Relations

Continuum of Care (HUD program)

Commission on Cancer

Communications Workers of America

Concerned Women for America

Christopher Wren Association (W&M)

Medical Diagnostic Laboratories

Material Design Life

DEFINE ABBREVIATIONS!!!

Do.?

This is never defined

anywhere in the Code of

Federal Register (CFR).

Do. means “Ditto”

COMPUTER ACRONYMS/ABBREVIATIONS

• GIF

• JPEG

• BIOS

• WYSIWYG

• CD-ROM

• HTTP

• PDF

• HTML

• HTTP

• Graphics Interchange Format

• Joint Photographic Experts Group

• Basic Input Output System

• What You See Is What You Get

• Compact Disc Read-only Memory

• Hypertext Transfer Protocol

• Portable Document Format

• HyperText Markup Language

• HyperText Transfer Protocol

Acronym

Abbreviation

TEXT SPEAK OR TEXT CHAT - ABBREVIATIONS • GF

• BFF

• LOL

• DL

• TBH

• IMO or IMHO

• WDYMBT

• NSFW

• BRB

• OMG

• BTW

• Girl friend

• Best friend forever

• Laughing out loud

• Down low

• To be honest

• In my (humble) opinion

• What do you mean by that

• Not safe for work

• Be right back

• Oh my Gosh

• By the way

ALTERNATE MEANINGS

BFF – Binary File Format

LOL – Little Old Lady

BRB – Big Red Button

OMG – Outlaw

Motorcycle Gang

BTW – British Traditional

Wicca

FML – Family and

Medical leave

AIRPORT IDENTIFIERS Not technically acronyms, but used that way

Airport

• Sioux City, Iowa Gateway Airport

• Anthony, Kansas Municipal Airport

• Fresno, CA

• Singapore Changi Airport

• Butler Missouri Memorial Airport

• Finley, New South Wales, Australia Airport

• Perm, Russia

• Fukuoka, Kyushu, Japan

• Virginia Airports -

FAA Identifier

• SUX (www.flysux.com)

• ANY

• FAT

• SIN

• BUM

• FLY

• PEE

• FUK

SEATTLE STREETCAR LINE

Streetcar line in Seattle, WA was officially called the South Lake Union Streetcar, but residents called it the South Lake Union Trolley, or SLUT.

In 2009, the Wisconsin

Tourism Federation's biggest

problem wasn't finding a

way to attract more people

to the metropolitan

Kenosha area; it was the

realization that its initials

mirrored the slang

abbreviation for "What the

F---?“ The WTF from

America's Dairyland has

been around since 1979, so

it likely predates the vulgar

WTF. The organization

changed its name to the

Tourism Federation of

Wisconsin, or TFW.

PREVIOUSLY KNOWN AS WTF

THE T.R.O.J.A.N. RESPONSE MILLCREEK TOWNSHIP SCHOOL DISTRICT, PA

Another Pennsylvania school district

distributed buckets of rocks A more typical response is Avoid-Deny-Defend, or Run-

Hide-Fight

SARASOTA, FL

Sarasota County Area Transit.

“Have an enjoyable weekend

SCAT riders, be sure and let us

know where you're SCATing too

this weekend we would love to ..”

SCAT Defined as

1. animal feces

2. Move away quickly

3. Jazz singing with nonsense

syllables

4. Sarasota Bus Service

B.A.R.F.

• Biologically Appropriate Raw Foods for Dogs

• Bay Area Riders Forum

• Binarily Augmented Retro-Framing – from Ironman Tony Stark

• vomit

NORTHERN VIRGINIA GAMERS

SHAG

• Sustainable Housing for Ageless Generations (SHAG)

• Senior Housing Assistance Group (SHAG)

• Located in Seattle and Puget Sound, WA

TO SUMMARIZE… • Acronyms are pronounceable as a word – formed from first letters of

words

• Abbreviations can be formed like acronyms, but used by saying the individual letters; if formed from parts of words, then pronounced as word

• Acronyms and abbreviations mean different things to different people, so tailor your usage to your listeners.

• Be care of naming things that have the ability to become an acronym! Or, work backwards from a word to create a phrase or title.

• ACRONYM – A Creative Representation Of a Notion You Made