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Acronyms of various sizes.

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A G Jackson

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Jan 25, 1994, 12:06:11 PM1/25/94
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We all know a TLA is a Three Letter Acronym, right?
And an ETLA is an Extended Three Letter Acronym.
And a DETLA is a Double Extended Three Letter Acronym.

Is there a respectable self-referential two letter acronym?

Adrian

+--------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Adrian Jackson | a.g.j...@durham.ac.uk | 27 North Bailey, DURHAM |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Cat: Don't fish swim south for the winter? |
| Kryten: That's birds, sir. |
| Cat: Birds swim south for the winter? How do they breathe? |
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Jerry (Prince of Llamas)

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Jan 26, 1994, 2:24:10 AM1/26/94
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In article <2i3ji4$4...@mercury.dur.ac.uk> A G Jackson <A.G.J...@durham.ac.uk> writes:
>We all know a TLA is a Three Letter Acronym, right?
>And an ETLA is an Extended Three Letter Acronym.
>And a DETLA is a Double Extended Three Letter Acronym.
>
>Is there a respectable self-referential two letter acronym?

How about SA (Short Acronym)

Or NSSABHIIA Not So Short Acronym, But Here It Is Anyway.

>Adrian
>
>+--------------------------------------------------------------------------+
>| Adrian Jackson | a.g.j...@durham.ac.uk | 27 North Bailey, DURHAM |
>+--------------------------------------------------------------------------+
>| Cat: Don't fish swim south for the winter? |
>| Kryten: That's birds, sir. |
>| Cat: Birds swim south for the winter? How do they breathe? |
>+--------------------------------------------------------------------------+


--
__ __
\ oo / sdl...@cs.rit.edu /// "He who dies with the
`--' __/// most toys... IS DEAD."
_/|_ je...@mail.csh.rit.edu \\//

Dianne Hackborn

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Jan 26, 1994, 6:10:51 PM1/26/94
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In article <2i3ji4$4...@mercury.dur.ac.uk>,

A G Jackson <A.G.J...@durham.ac.uk> wrote:
| We all know a TLA is a Three Letter Acronym, right?
| And an ETLA is an Extended Three Letter Acronym.
| And a DETLA is a Double Extended Three Letter Acronym.
|
| Is there a respectable self-referential two letter acronym?

Double Acronym?
Midget Acronym?
Little Acronym?

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dianne Kyra Hackborn "Thanks to our schools and political leadership,
hac...@xanth.cs.orst.edu the U.S. has acquired an international reputation
BIX: dhack / IRC: Dianne as the home of 250 million people dumb enough to
Oregon State University buy 'The Wacky Wall-Walker.'" -- Frank Zappa

Christopher Samuel

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Jan 26, 1994, 11:20:26 AM1/26/94
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/*
* s/Acronym/Abbreviation/g where necessary.
*/

In article <2i3ji4$4...@mercury.dur.ac.uk> of alt.tla,
A G Jackson <A.G.J...@durham.ac.uk> doodled:

> We all know a TLA is a Three Letter Acronym, right?
> And an ETLA is an Extended Three Letter Acronym.
> And a DETLA is a Double Extended Three Letter Acronym.

I prefer to use:

FETLA : Further Extended Three Letter Acronym, as I can then have
EFETLA : Excessively Further Extended Three Letter Acronym

> Is there a respectable self-referential two letter acronym?

How about using

DA : Digraphic Acronym /* created by Alun Jones, a...@aber.ac.uk */

Which makes my personal sequence of acronyms:

A : Acronym
DA : Digraphic Acronym
TLA : Three Letter Acronym
ETLA : Extended Three Letter Acronym
FETLA : Further Extended Three Letter Acronym
EFETLA : Excessively Extended Three Letter Acronym
DEFETLA : Double Excessively Extended Three Letter Acronym
[reserved for ISO committee use]

(you can tell I should be doing some work, can't you..)
Chris
--
Christopher Samuel, Computer Unit, U.W Aberystwyth, Aberystwyth, WALES
E-mail: c...@aber.ac.uk PGP key available via finger ICBM: 52.24'N, 4.4'W
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Christian Brunschen

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Jan 26, 1994, 11:58:41 AM1/26/94
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In article <1994Jan26.1...@aber.ac.uk> c...@aber.ac.uk (Christopher Samuel) writes:
>In article <2i3ji4$4...@mercury.dur.ac.uk> of alt.tla,
> A G Jackson <A.G.J...@durham.ac.uk> doodled:
>
>> We all know a TLA is a Three Letter Acronym, right?
>> And an ETLA is an Extended Three Letter Acronym.
>> And a DETLA is a Double Extended Three Letter Acronym.
>
>I prefer to use:
>
>A : Acronym
>DA : Digraphic Acronym
>TLA : Three Letter Acronym
>ETLA : Extended Three Letter Acronym
>FETLA : Further Extended Three Letter Acronym
>EFETLA : Excessively Extended Three Letter Acronym
>DEFETLA : Double Excessively Extended Three Letter Acronym
> [reserved for ISO committee use]

Why not, after TLA, use

ETLA : Extended Three-Letter Acronym
TETLA : Twice ETLA
TTETLA : Three Times ETLA
ETTETLA : Extended TTETLA
TETTETLA: Twice ETTETLA
TTETTETLA: (... you get the idea...) ?

We could then have a E((TTE)**3)TLA ... an "Extended Three Times extended
Three Times Extended Three Times Extended Three Letter Acronym" :-)

We could probably make a recursive BNF for this ... am I over the edge
yet ? :-)


>
>Chris
>--
> Christopher Samuel, Computer Unit, U.W Aberystwyth, Aberystwyth, WALES
>E-mail: c...@aber.ac.uk PGP key available via finger ICBM: 52.24'N, 4.4'W
>NewModelArmyTheLevellersTheSistersOfMercyNineInchNailsTheFieldsOfTheNephilim
>AnhrefnDeadKennedysTheClashLardTheCultBahausDreadZepplinMetallicaJelloBiafra

best regards // Christian Brunschen

| Christian Brunschen, Husmansv. 26, S-227 38 Lund, Sweden |
| voice/fax/data +46 (0)46 139345, email d8...@efd.lth.se |
| PGP 2.2 Public Key available on request. | ObCelebrityQuote: |
| "Oh, foo." |
| - Andrew R. Koenig (a...@research.att.com) after dropping a piece |
| of chalk during a lecture on C++ in Lund, Sweden, April 1993 |

The Leather Goddess

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Jan 28, 1994, 5:33:37 AM1/28/94
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>A G Jackson <A.G.J...@durham.ac.uk> doodled:
>> We all know a TLA is a Three Letter Acronym, right?
>> And an ETLA is an Extended Three Letter Acronym.

Sorry, that's TLA/E

>> And a DETLA is a Double Extended Three Letter Acronym.

TLA/E2, perhaps


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Lesley Walker, Wellington, New Zealand. Wolves converge on their prey in
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Stephen Cote Gibson

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Feb 5, 1994, 2:07:07 PM2/5/94
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In article <1994Jan31....@inmos.co.uk>, fa...@inmos.co.uk (Anthony Finch (PFUE)) writes:

|> In article <hceStAl...@phobos.actrix.gen.nz> lea...@phobos.actrix.gen.nz (The Leather Goddess) writes:
|> >>A G Jackson <A.G.J...@durham.ac.uk> doodled:
|> >>> We all know a TLA is a Three Letter Acronym, right?
|> >>> And an ETLA is an Extended Three Letter Acronym.
|> >
|> >Sorry, that's TLA/E
|> >
|> >>> And a DETLA is a Double Extended Three Letter Acronym.
|> >
|> >TLA/E2, perhaps
|>
|> Does anyone commonly use the word "initialism"?
|>
|> I had an argument with a pedant over its validity, and it turns out that
|> initialisms are spelled out (like TLA) whereas acronyms are (usually)
|> pronounced (like DOS).
|>
|> Anthony Finch - fa...@inmos.co.uk

Well, the definition of acronym is expanding (so I'm told) to include initialisms, and I dont think there's anything we can do about it.

And my understanding is that ETLA means a TLA that includes another TLA as one of its letters, eg: ASE = Autodesk SQL Extension. And I apologize for using and initialism for this example. So a four letter abbreviation can maybe be an FLA? (making ETLA an FLA). I rather prefer the term "initialism" for abbreviations that can't be pronounced, but I think we're in the minority on this issue. I also think that TLA should mean three letter ABBREVIATION, not acronym. It makes it much more clear and truly se
lf-referential. (TLA is a TLA for TLA!).
Just my opinions...

Stephen

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