4 ms·
The one in my quote, that's used in multiple places in the very article...?
by folkrav 4y ago
The one in my quote, that's used in multiple places in the very article...?
- leephillips 4y ago[flagged]
- folkrav 4y agoTDP -> tardigrade-specific intrinsically disordered protein Most people would agree that this is an acronym - although some purists may prefer "initialism" as it's not pronounced as a word. At least, Merriam Webster seems to agree, and Oxford's lists that purist definition second to the way I used it.
- akvadrako 4y agoI would say it's only an acronym if it's pronouncable. Maybe that's what they mean.
- cshimmin 4y agoI think it's a pedantic attempt to bring up the whole "initialism vs acronym" thing. You know, kinda thing that makes you real fun at parties.
- folkrav 4y agoYeah, I kind of figured that out as you responded - see my other comment hehe. For what it's worth, Merriam Webster seems to agree that the distinction is basically arbitrary, and OED has the more general definition first lol
- crazygringo 4y agoOh yikes. I've never even heard of the term "initialism" before. I guess that's because it's barely used: https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=acronym%2Cinitialism&year_start=1950&year_end=2019&corpus=en-2019&smoothing=3 https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=acronym%2Cinit... Maybe some people have tried to push it as a new word in common usage but they don't appear to have succeeded.