4 ms·
I think in many contexts there's a case to be made for the redundancy. For instance, at a checkout counter where a customer or cashier may have a pen in hand,
by dwringer 8y ago
I think in many contexts there's a case to be made for the redundancy. For instance, at a checkout counter where a customer or cashier may have a pen in hand, may be wearing one or more pins, and is subsequently prompted for a PIN - saying "PIN number" immediately resolves any possible ambiguity. "ATM machine" similarly disambiguates the machine from the abbreviation for "at the moment". "CAC" is an acronym with many meanings and is sufficiently uncommon for laypersons that replacing parts of speech with it is bound to cause confusion. I am tempted generally to consider the unqualified use of acronyms as jargon which I prefer to avoid using whenever reasonably possible.
- kstrauser 8y agoI respectfully disagree. "Enter your PIN" can't refer to their ballpoint or to the little flag on their lapel. If I'm getting cash from the ATM, I can't mean the Asynchronous Transfer Mode router. "Present your CAC at the door" would only have one meaning in any setting where you'd be expected to show your CAC.
- Retra 8y agoBut neither of those contexts are an article on the internet or casual conversation, which could very well be about ballpoint pens, little flags, or anything else.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- mulmen 8y agoThen be explicit instead of redundant. “Enter your personal identification number to get cash from the automated teller machine.” What’s the point in collapsing a descriptive name to an initialism then partially redundantly expanding it?
- Retra 8y agoThe point is to communicate clearly and unambiguously, rather than satisfying some sort of pedantic aversion to harmless redundancy. Redundancy in communication can be very valuable.
- 7952 8y agoAt this point you could easily go your entire life without knowing what PIN stands for. It has become colloquial. It doesn't matter any more what is stands for. Just like Laser, radar, Tardis, or ATM. The original acronym doesn't matter. That's ok, beause Acronyms Seriously Suck. They are new words, with a mildly interesting derivation.
- angry_octet 8y agoAgree, the acronym shouldn't need to be dereferenced. The thing you plug in / swipe is a card --> call it a card. If you want someone to enter a number, say number. So "CAC card" is (label="CAC", object type=card). If someone needs l to be pedantic they can go to the/Pedantic or something. You can argue that PIN itself is wrong, as it doesn't identify a person at all, the account number in the identifier, what you enter is a secret.