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Never lose a good acronym!
3

Never lose a good acronym!

Never lose a good acronym!

(OP)
Never let a good acronym escape for want of a useful name:

OCEAN: Organisation of European Community Ship Suppliers
Shouldn’t that be OECSS?
No, not if you use French:
Organisation de la Communauté Européenne de Avitailleurs des Navires

Ocean is of course a useful English word (if it were French it would be OCÉAN)

Then too there is CIMAC (pronounced sea-mak)which is the International Council on Combustion Engines. Of course, now i go to the German based website, the orginal French name for this user body is now missing.

JMW
www.viscoanalyser.com

RE: Never lose a good acronym!

Here is an interesting tidbit that is not widely known:

the three letter abbreviation for the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) is not an acronym.  Rather, it is the greek root for same, which is a perfect fit for the group.

Cheers.

RE: Never lose a good acronym!

http://www.iso.org/iso/en/aboutiso/introduction/index.html#three

'What ISO's name means - Because "International Organization for Standardization" would have different abbreviations in different languages ("IOS" in English, "OIN" in French for Organisation internationale de normalisation), it was decided at the outset to use a word derived from the Greek isos, meaning "equal". Therefore, whatever the country, whatever the language, the short form of the organization's name is always ISO.'

But it still matches International Standards Organization.

=====================================
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RE: Never lose a good acronym!

So, ISO is a TLA for something that means "The Same"? Wouldn't it be better to use the TLA (Two Letter Acronym) TS instead? The savings are impressive: a massive 33 percent!

IMHO (a FLA that perhaps should be avoided), a 33 percent saving is not bad. But I think that even more impressive savings are possible. Are there any examples where, say, a TLA - or even an OLA - can be used to substitute a FLA, SLA or perhaps even a SLA out there?

Sorry, couldn't resist.

RE: Never lose a good acronym!

(OP)
What fun foreign languages can be. And how helpful a spell checker is (not).

According to "legend" during the British Foot in Mouth epidemic, a headline appeared on the opposite side of the Atlantic "Mafia slaughter thousands in Britain!".

The story suggests that someones spellchecker took MAFF (Ministry of Agriculture Fisheries and Food) and offered up Mafia (Morte Alla Franciese Italia Annella, according to some) instead.

An internet search now reveals many articles with the "word" MAFFia in them and some without the carefl capitalisation.

The UK Government has responded by downgrading the meinistry to a department and changing its name to DEFRA (whatever tha means, but not to be confused with DARPA)

JMW
www.viscoanalyser.com

RE: Never lose a good acronym!

(OP)
Latin has always been a useful language, for a "dead" language that is.

HOVIS is familiar to many British families as the brand name for a loaf of brown bread.

It comes from the two latin words Hominis Vis, the staff of life... clever some of these advertising agencies, but while it isn't an initialism it isn't really an acronym either, is it?

JMW
www.viscoanalyser.com

RE: Never lose a good acronym!

The ISO discussion reminded me of another tongue firmly in cheek acronym... DNA


National Dislexic Association!

Mark Hutton

RE: Never lose a good acronym!

To jmw, I think HOVIS would be called a "contraction". Am I right ?

RE: Never lose a good acronym!

Please note that ASNTThe American Society for Nondestructive Testing is also not to be confused with American Society Not Testing.

Ciao.

RE: Never lose a good acronym!

PS:
Because so often we use NDT for nondestructive testing.

Ciao.

RE: Never lose a good acronym!


I think FUBAR and SNAFU describe my situation nicely.

RE: Never lose a good acronym!

jmw & 25362:

"Contraction" is usually used to describe a more standard kind of word combination.  "Blend" covers it, as does "syllabic abbreviation".

Hg

Eng-Tips guidelines:  FAQ731-376

RE: Never lose a good acronym!

Quote:

the three letter abbreviation for the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) is not an acronym.  Rather, it is the greek root for same, which is a perfect fit for the group.

After a number of ISO audits, we discovered the REAL meaning of 'ISO' is

It's Sorta Ok

Racing and bullfighting are the only real sports...everything else is just a game.
Bob

RE: Never lose a good acronym!

Not strictly acronyms, but I've heard these in my travels:
ISDN - It Still Does Nothing
www - world-wide wait

Bung
Life is non-linear...

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