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What exactly makes you think it’s a word when it’s clearly an initialism? Do you also write MS-DOS as "Ms-dos" or BBC as "Bbc"? (Or NATO as "Nato", though that

What exactly makes you think it’s a word when it’s clearly an initialism? Do you also write MS-DOS as "Ms-dos" or BBC as "Bbc"? (Or NATO as "Nato", though that one actually has better grounds to be written like that, being an acronym rather than an initialism – in some orthographies acronyms are indeed written like proper nouns.)

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bmacho 3y ago
> What exactly makes you think it’s a word The definition of the word word. > when it’s clearly an initialism? Then why does its creator write it all lowercase? > Do you also write MS-DOS as "Ms-dos" Yes.
- Sharlin 3y ago
  > Then why does its creator write it all lowercase? It's written consistently in all upper case in the copy text at https://www.delorie.com/djgpp/ https://www.delorie.com/djgpp/. When it's written in all lowercase, like in the title, that's a stylistic preference that you can disapprove of if you want, although it's an incredibly petty thing to care about. > Yes. Well, that's your prerogative, but it's against standard English orthography. Acronyms and initialisms that refer to proper nouns are spelled all uppercase in English. FBI, NASA, WHO, GCC, HSV, NY, no "Fbi", "Nasa", "Who", "Gcc", "Hsv", or "Ny". You'd never get the latter versions past any remotely competent copy editor or grade school teacher. As an example of different orthography, in standard Finnish NASA would indeed be spelled "Nasa", but FBI is still FBI and DJGPP is still DJGPP.
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  - bmacho 3y ago
    > It's written consistently in all upper case in the copy text at https://www.delorie.com/djgpp/ https://www.delorie.com/djgpp/. And consistently lowercase in the article linked in the post I was answering. There is 10 years between the 2 links, seems the author changed their mind about introducing words with forced irregular capitalization.

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bmacho 3y ago

> What exactly makes you think it’s a word The definition of the word word. > when it’s clearly an initialism? Then why does its creator write it all lowercase? > Do you also write MS-DOS as "Ms-dos" Yes.

Sharlin 3y ago
> Then why does its creator write it all lowercase? It's written consistently in all upper case in the copy text at https://www.delorie.com/djgpp/ https://www.delorie.com/djgpp/. When it's written in all lowercase, like in the title, that's a stylistic preference that you can disapprove of if you want, although it's an incredibly petty thing to care about. > Yes. Well, that's your prerogative, but it's against standard English orthography. Acronyms and initialisms that refer to proper nouns are spelled all uppercase in English. FBI, NASA, WHO, GCC, HSV, NY, no "Fbi", "Nasa", "Who", "Gcc", "Hsv", or "Ny". You'd never get the latter versions past any remotely competent copy editor or grade school teacher. As an example of different orthography, in standard Finnish NASA would indeed be spelled "Nasa", but FBI is still FBI and DJGPP is still DJGPP.
- deleted 3y ago
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- bmacho 3y ago
  > It's written consistently in all upper case in the copy text at https://www.delorie.com/djgpp/ https://www.delorie.com/djgpp/. And consistently lowercase in the article linked in the post I was answering. There is 10 years between the 2 links, seems the author changed their mind about introducing words with forced irregular capitalization.