2 ms·

I wonder why the article uses "Aids" vs "AIDS" but then uses "HIV" and not e.g. "Hiv"

• thaumasiotes 8y ago
  The simplest reason would be that "AIDS" is pronounced as a word, like "LASER", "SONAR", or "SCOTUS", while "HIV" is pronounced as a series of three letters. The pronunciation of HIV makes it essentially impossible to spell it with lowercase letters ("OK" being the only exception that comes to mind).
• jamessb 8y ago
  The Guardian style is: > Use all capitals if an abbreviation is pronounced as the individual letters (an initialism): BBC, CEO, US, VAT, etc; if it is an acronym (pronounced as a word) spell out with initial capital, eg Nasa, Nato, Unicef, unless it can be considered to have entered the language as an everyday word, such as awol, laser and, more recently, asbo, pin number and sim card. Note that pdf and plc are lowercase. https://www.theguardian.com/guardian-observer-style-guide-a https://www.theguardian.com/guardian-observer-style-guide-a