Anabbreviation (from Latinbrevis'short')[1] is a shortened form of a word or phrase, by any method includingshortening,contraction,initialism (which includesacronym), orcrasis. An abbreviation may be a shortened form of a word, usually ended with a trailing period. For example, the termetc. is the usual abbreviation for theLatin phraseet cetera.
Acontraction is an abbreviation formed by replacing letters with an apostrophe. Examples includeI'm forI am andli'l forlittle.
Aninitialism oracronym is an abbreviation consisting of the initial letter of a sequence of words without other punctuation. For example,FBI (/ˌɛf.biːˈaɪ/),USA (/ˌjuː.ɛsˈeɪ/),IBM (/ˌaɪ.biːˈɛm/),BBC (/ˌbiː.biːˈsiː/). When initialism is used as the preferred term, acronym refers more specifically to when the abbreviation is pronounced as a word rather than as separate letters; examples includeSWAT andNASA.
Initialisms, contractions and crasis share somesemantic andphonetic functions, and are connected by the termabbreviation in loose parlance.[2]: p167
In early times, abbreviations may have been common due to the effort involved in writing (many inscriptions were carved in stone) or to provide secrecy viaobfuscation.
Reduction of a word to a single letter was common in bothGreek andRoman writing.[3] In Roman inscriptions, "Words were commonly abbreviated by using the initial letter or letters of words, and most inscriptions have at least one abbreviation". However, "some could have more than one meaning, depending on their context. (For example,⟨A⟩ can be an abbreviation for many words, such asager,amicus,annus,as,Aulus,Aurelius,aurum, andavus.)"[4] Many frequent abbreviations consisted of more than one letter: for example COS forconsul and COSS for itsnominative etc. pluralconsules.
Abbreviations were frequently used in earlyEnglish. Manuscripts of copies of theOld English poemBeowulf used many abbreviations, for example theTironian et (⁊) or& forand, andy forsince, so that "not much space is wasted".[5] The standardisation of English in the 15th through 17th centuries included a growth in the use of such abbreviations.[6] At first, abbreviations were sometimes represented with various suspension signs, not only periods. For example, sequences like⟨er⟩ were replaced with⟨ɔ⟩, as inmastɔ formaster andexacɔbate forexacerbate. While this may seem trivial, it was symptomatic of an attempt by people manually reproducing academic texts to reduce the copy time.
Mastɔ subwardenɔ y ɔmēde me to you. And wherɔ y wrot to you the last wyke that y trouyde itt good to differrɔ thelectionɔ ovɔ to quīdenaɔ tinitatis y have be thougħt me synɔ that itt woll be thenɔ a bowte mydsomɔ.
In theEarly Modern English period, between the 15th and 17th centuries, thethornÞ was used forth, as inÞe ('the'). In modern times,⟨Þ⟩ was often used (in the form⟨y⟩) for promotional reasons, as inYe Olde Tea Shoppe.[7]
During the growth ofphilological linguistic theory in academic Britain, abbreviating became very fashionable. Likewise, a century earlier inBoston, a fad of abbreviation started that swept the United States, with the globally popular termOK generally credited as a remnant of its influence.[8][9]
Over the years, however, the lack of convention in some style guides has made it difficult to determine which two-word abbreviations should be abbreviated with periods and which should not. This question is considered below.
Widespread use of electronic communication through mobile phones and the Internet during the 1990s led to a marked rise in colloquial abbreviation. This was due largely to increasing popularity of textual communication services such as instant and text messaging. The originalSMS supported message lengths of 160 characters at most (using theGSM 03.38 character set), for instance.[a] This brevity gave rise to an informal abbreviation scheme sometimes calledTextese, with which 10% or more of the words in a typical SMS message are abbreviated.[10] More recently Twitter, a popularsocial networking service, began driving abbreviation use with 140 character message limits.
InHTML, abbreviations can be annotated using<abbrtitle="Meaning of the abbreviation.">abbreviation</abbr> to reveal its meaning byhovering the cursor.
In modern English, there are multiple conventions for abbreviation, and there is controversy as to which should be used. One generally accepted rule is to be consistent in a body of work. To this end, publishers may express their preferences in astyle guide.
Some controversies that arise are described below.
If the original word was capitalized then the first letter of its abbreviation should retain the capital, for example Lev. forLeviticus. When a word is abbreviated to more than a single letter and was originally spelled with lower case letters then there is no need for capitalization. However, when abbreviating a phrase where only the first letter of each word is taken, then all letters should be capitalized, as in YTD foryear-to-date, PCB forprinted circuit board and FYI forfor your information. However, see the following section regarding abbreviations that have become common vocabulary: these are no longer written with capital letters.
Sign in New York City subway, reading "Penna." for Pennsylvania, showing American style of including the period even for contractions
A period (a.k.a. full stop) is sometimes used to signify abbreviation, but opinion is divided as to when and if this convention is best practice.
According toHart's Rules, a word shortened by dropping letters from the end terminates with a period, whereas a word shorted by dropping letters from the middle does not.[2]: p167–170 Fowler's Modern English Usage says a period is used for both of these shortened forms, but recommends against this practice: advising it only for end-shortened words and lower-case initialisms; not for middle-shortened words and upper-case initialisms.[11]
InAmerican English, the period is usually included regardless of whether or not it is a contraction, e.g.Dr. orMrs. In some cases, periods are optional, as in eitherUS orU.S. forUnited States,EU orE.U. forEuropean Union, andUN orU.N. forUnited Nations. There are some house styles, however—American ones included—that remove the periods from almost all abbreviations. For example:
The U.S.Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices advises that periods should not be used with abbreviations on road signs, except for cardinal directions as part of a destination name. (For example,"Northwest Blvd","W. Jefferson", and"PED XING" all follow this recommendation.)
AMA style, used in manymedical journals, uses no periods in abbreviations or acronyms, with almost no exceptions. Thuseg,ie,vs,et al.,Dr,Mr,MRI,ICU, and hundreds of others contain no periods. The only exceptions areNo. (an abbreviation ofNumero, Number), to avoid confusion with the word "No"; initials within persons' names (such as "George R. Smith"); and "St." within persons' names when the person prefers it (such as "Emily R. St. Clair") (but not in city names such asSt Louis orSt Paul).
Acronyms that were originally capitalized (with or without periods) but have since entered the vocabulary as generic words are no longer written with capital letters nor with any periods. Examples aresonar,radar,lidar,laser,snafu, andscuba.
When an abbreviation appears at the end of a sentence, only one period is used:The capital of the United States is Washington, D.C.
In the past, some initialisms were styled with a period after each letter and a space between each pair. For example,U. S., but today this is typicallyUS.
There are multiple ways to pluralize an abbreviation. Sometimes this accomplished by adding an apostrophe and ans ('s), as in "two PC's have broken screens". But, some find this confusing since the notation can indicatepossessive case. And, this style is deprecated by many style guides. For instance,Kate Turabian, writing about style in academic writings,[14] allows for an apostrophe to form plural acronyms "only when an abbreviation contains internal periods or both capital and lowercase letters". For example, "DVDs" and "URLs" and "Ph.D.'s", while theModern Language Association[15] explicitly says, "do not use an apostrophe to form the plural of an abbreviation". Also, theAmerican Psychological Association specifically says,[16][17] "without an apostrophe".
However, the 1999 style guide forThe New York Times states that the addition of an apostrophe is necessary when pluralizing all abbreviations, preferring "PC's, TV's and VCR's".[18]
Forming a plural of an initialization without an apostrophe can also be used for a number, or a letter. Examples:[19]
For units of measure, the same form is used for both singular and plural. Examples:
1 lb or 20 lb
1 ft or 16 ft
1 min or 45 min
When an abbreviation contains more than one period,Hart's Rules recommends putting thes after the final one. Examples:
Ph.D.s
M.Phil.s
The d.t.s
However, the same plurals may be rendered less formally as:
PhDs
MPhils
The DTs (This is the recommended form in theNew Oxford Dictionary for Writers and Editors.)
According toHart's Rules, an apostrophe may be used in rare cases where clarity calls for it, for example when letters or symbols are referred to as objects.
The x's of the equation
Dot the i's and cross the t's
However, the apostrophe can be dispensed with if the items are set in italics or quotes:
Thexs of the equation
Dot the 'i's and cross the 't's
In Latin, and continuing to the derivative forms in European languages as well as English, single-letter abbreviations had the plural being a doubling of the letter for note-taking. Most of these deal with writing and publishing. A few longer abbreviations use this as well.
Many British publications follow some of these guidelines in abbreviation:
For the sake of convenience, many British publications, including theBBC andThe Guardian, have completely done away with the use of periods in all abbreviations. These include:
Social titles, e.g. Ms or Mr (though these would usually have not had periods—see above) Capt, Prof,etc.;
Two-letter abbreviations for countries ("US", not"U.S.");
Abbreviations beyond three letters (full caps for all except initialisms[clarification needed]);
Words seldom abbreviated with lower case letters ("PR", instead of"p.r.", or"pr")
Names ("FW de Klerk","GB Whiteley","Park JS"). A notable exception isThe Economist which writes"Mr F. W. de Klerk".
Scientific units (see Measurements below).
Acronyms are often referred to with only the first letter of the abbreviation capitalized. For instance, theNorth Atlantic Treaty Organization can be abbreviated as"Nato" or"NATO", andSevere Acute Respiratory Syndrome as"Sars" or"SARS" (compare with"laser" which has made the full transition to an English word and is rarely capitalised at all).
Initialisms are always written in capitals; for example the"British Broadcasting Corporation" is abbreviated to"BBC", never"Bbc". An initialism is also an acronym but is not pronounced as a word.
When abbreviating scientific units, no space is added between the number and unit (100mph, 100m, 10cm, 10°C). (This is contrary to the SI standard; see below.)
A doubled letter appears in abbreviations of some Welsh names, as inWelsh the double "l" is a separate sound: "Ll. George" for (British prime minister)David Lloyd George.
Some titles, such as "Reverend" and "Honourable", are spelt out when preceded by "the", rather than as "Rev." or "Hon." respectively. This is true for most British publications, and some in the United States.
A repeatedly used abbreviation should be spelt out for identification on its first occurrence in a written or spoken passage.[21] Abbreviations likely to be unfamiliar to many readers should be avoided.
Writers often use shorthand to denote units of measure. Such shorthand can be an abbreviation, such as "in" for "inch" or can be a symbol such as "km" for "kilometre".
The conventions for upper and lower case letters must be observed—for example 1 MW (megawatts) is equal to 1,000,000 watts and 1,000,000,000 mW (milliwatts).
No periods should be inserted between letters—for example "m.s" (which is an approximation of "m·s", which correctly usesmiddle dot) is the symbol for "metres multiplied by seconds", but "ms" is the symbol for milliseconds.
No periods should follow the symbol unless the syntax of the sentence demands otherwise (for example a full stop at the end of a sentence).
The singular and plural versions of the symbol are identical—not all languages use the letter "s" to denote a plural.
A syllabic abbreviation is usually formed from the initial syllables of several words, such asInterpol =International +police. It is a variant of the acronym. Syllabic abbreviations are usually written usinglower case, sometimes starting with acapital letter, and are always pronounced as words rather than letter by letter. Syllabic abbreviations should be distinguished fromportmanteaus, which combine two words without necessarily taking whole syllables from each.
Syllabic abbreviations are not widely used in English. Some UK government agencies such asOfcom (Office of Communications) and the formerOftel (Office of Telecommunications) use this style.
New York City has various neighborhoods named by syllabic abbreviation, such asTribeca (Triangle below Canal Street) andSoHo (South of Houston Street). This usage has spread into other American cities, givingSoMa, San Francisco (South of Market) andLoDo, Denver (Lower Downtown), amongst others.
Chicago-based electric service providerComEd is a syllabic abbreviation ofCommonwealth and (Thomas)Edison.
Sections ofCalifornia are also often colloquially syllabically abbreviated, as in NorCal (Northern California), CenCal (Central California), and SoCal (Southern California). Additionally, in the context of Los Angeles, the syllabic abbreviation SoHo (Southern Hollywood) refers to the southern portion of theHollywood neighborhood.
Partially syllabic abbreviations are preferred by the US Navy, as they increase readability amidst the large number of initialisms that would otherwise have to fit into the same acronyms. HenceDESRON 6 is used (in the full capital form) to mean "Destroyer Squadron 6", whileCOMNAVAIRLANT would be "Commander, Naval Air Force (in the) Atlantic".
Syllabic abbreviations are a prominent feature ofNewspeak, the fictional language ofGeorge Orwell's dystopian novelNineteen Eighty-Four. The political contractions of Newspeak—Ingsoc (English Socialism),Minitrue (Ministry of Truth),Miniplenty (Ministry of Plenty)—are described by Orwell as similar to real examples of German(see below) and Russian (see below) contractions in the 20th century. The contractions in Newspeak are supposed to have a political function by virtue of their abbreviated structure itself: nice sounding and easily pronounceable, their purpose is to mask all ideological content from the speaker.[23]: 310–8
In Albanian, syllabic acronyms are sometimes used for composing a person's name, such asMigjeni—an abbreviation from his original name (Millosh Gjergj Nikolla) a famous Albanian poet and writer—orASDRENI (Aleksander Stavre Drenova), another famous Albanian poet.
Other such names which are used commonly in recent decades are GETOAR, composed fromGegeria +Tosks (representing the two main dialects of the Albanian language, Gegë and Toskë), andArbanon—which is an alternative way used to describe all Albanian lands.
Syllabic abbreviations were and are common inGerman; much like acronyms in English, they have a distinctly modern connotation, although contrary to popular belief, many date back to before1933, if not the end ofthe Great War.Kriminalpolizei, literallycriminal police but idiomatically theCriminal Investigation Department of any German police force, begatKriPo (variously capitalised), and likewiseSchutzpolizei (protection police oruniform department) begatSchuPo. Along the same lines, the Swiss Federal Railways' Transit Police—theTransportpolizei—are abbreviated as theTraPo.
With the National Socialist German Workers' Party gaining power came a frenzy of government reorganisation, and with it a series of entirely new syllabic abbreviations. The single national police force amalgamated from theSchutzpolizeien of the various states became the OrPo (Ordnungspolizei, "order police"); the state KriPos together formed the "SiPo" (Sicherheitspolizei, "security police"); and there was also theGestapo (Geheime Staatspolizei, "secret state police"). The new order of theGerman Democratic Republic in the east brought about a consciousdenazification, but also a repudiation of earlier turns of phrase in favour of neologisms such asStasi forStaatssicherheit ("state security", the secret police) andVoPo forVolkspolizei. The phrasepolitisches Büro, which may be rendered literally as "office of politics" or idiomatically as "political party steering committee", becamePolitbüro.
Syllabic abbreviations are not only used in politics, however. Many business names, trademarks, and service marks from across Germany are created on the same pattern: for a few examples, there isAldi, fromTheo Albrecht, the name of its founder, followed bydiscount;Haribo, fromHans Riegel, the name of its founder, followed byBonn, the town of its head office; andAdidas, fromAdolf "Adi" Dassler, the nickname of its founder followed by his surname.
Syllabic abbreviations are very common in Russian, Belarusian and Ukrainian languages. They are often used as names of organizations. Historically, popularization of abbreviations was a way to simplify mass-education in 1920s (seeLikbez). The wordkolkhoz (kollektívnoye khozyáystvo,collective farm) is another example.
Leninist organisations such as theComintern (Communist International) andKomsomol (Kommunisticheskii Soyuz Molodyozhi, or "Communist youth union") used Russian language syllabic abbreviations. In the modern Russian language, words likeRosselkhozbank (from Rossiysky selskokhozyaystvenny bank —Russian Agricultural Bank, RusAg) andMinobrnauki (from Ministerstvo obrazovaniya i nauki — Ministry of Education and Science) are still commonly used. In nearbyBelarus, there areBeltelecom (Belarus Telecommunication) and Belsat (Belarus Satellite).
Syllabic abbreviations are common inSpanish; examples abound in organization names such asPemex forPetróleos Mexicanos ("Mexican Petroleums") or Fonafifo forFondo Nacional de Financimiento Forestal (National Forestry Financing Fund).
In Southeast Asian languages, especially inMalay languages, abbreviations are common; examples includePetronas (forPetroliam Nasional, "National Petroleum"), its Indonesian equivalentPertamina (from its original namePerusahaan Pertambangan Minyak dan Gas Bumi Negara, "State Oil and Natural Gas Mining Company"), andKemenhub (fromKementerian Perhubungan, "Ministry of Transportation").
Malaysian abbreviation often uses letters from each word, while Indonesia usually uses syllables; although some cases do not follow the style. For example, general elections in Malaysian Malay often shortened into PRU (pilihanrayaumum) while Indonesian often shortened into pemilu (pemilihanumum). Another example is Ministry of Health in which Malaysian Malay uses KKM (KementerianKesihatanMalaysia), compared to Indonesian Kemenkes (KementerianKesehatan).
East Asian languages whose writing systems useChinese characters form abbreviations similarly by using key Chinese characters from a term or phrase. For example, in Japanese the term for theUnited Nations,kokusai rengō (国際連合) is often abbreviated tokokuren (国連). (Such abbreviations are calledryakugo (略語) in Japanese; see alsoJapanese abbreviated and contracted words). The syllabic abbreviation ofkanji words is frequently used for universities: for instance,Tōdai (東大) forTōkyō daigaku (東京大学,University of Tokyo) and is used similarly in Chinese:Běidà (北大) forBěijīng Dàxué (北京大学,Peking University). Korean universities often follow the same conventions, such asHongdae (홍대) as short forHongik Daehakgyo, orHongik University. The English phrase "Gung ho" originated as a Chinese abbreviation.
^Modern text messaging is not affected by this issue although, behind the scenes, longer messages are carried in multiple 160-byte short messages in a chain. Characters not in GSM 03.38 require two bytes.
^Allen, Robert, ed. (2008). "Full stop".Pocket Fowler's Modern English Usage (2nd ed.). Oxford University Press.ISBN9780191727078.
^"Guardian and Observer style guide: A".The Guardian. 2021-04-30.ISSN0261-3077. Retrieved2023-04-22.Do not use full points in abbreviations, or spaces between initials, including those in proper names: IMF, mph, eg, 4am, M&S, No 10, AN Wilson, WH Smith, etc.
^The Economist (2005).Style guide (9th ed.). London: Profile Books. p. 117.ISBN978-1-84765-030-6.OCLC236346040.Do not use full stops in abbreviations...
