# Annoying Abbreviations



## Biker Bear (May 1, 2011)

Some time back, I started seeing a lot of people online using the expression "FTW" more and more often. This confused me, because the only meaning I was familiar with is the one commonly used in biker culture, where it stands for "F**k The World" and often that didn't make any sense in context.

Of course, I eventually figured out that it's being used by some now to be short for "For The Win" ... which tends to provoke an eyeroll from me, since I'm old enough for that phrase to primarily bring to mind _Hollywood Squares_.

Anyone else stumble over that kind of abbreviation - either because it was opaque or as in my case had multiple interpretations?


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## flashflood (May 1, 2011)

Biker Bear said:


> Some time back, I started seeing a lot of people online using the expression "FTW" more and more often. This confused me, because the only meaning I was familiar with is the one commonly used in biker culture, where it stands for "F**k The World" and often that didn't make any sense in context.
> 
> Of course, I eventually figured out that it's being used by some now to be short for "For The Win" ... which tends to provoke an eyeroll from me, since I'm old enough for that phrase to primarily bring to mind _Hollywood Squares_.
> 
> Anyone else stumble over that kind of abbreviation - either because it was opaque or as in my case had multiple interpretations?


 

Oh yes. WTB/WTS/WTT. WTF?

Although, in context, it makes me want to post "WTF: Megan Fox".


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## dudemar (May 1, 2011)

ROFLMAOZOMGWTFBBQ?!?

Sorry had to do it. 

Yes, abbreviations like "FTW" and "Lulz" or "Lulzy" are really annoying. I used to think "FML" was annoying until it started to make sense much of the time.


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## PhotonWrangler (May 1, 2011)

Don't feel bad; I had to ask what "bump" meant.


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## redaudi (May 2, 2011)

QFT.

used to be quit forking talking...

then turned into quoted for truth. 

that's the only one i ever really derp'd over. 

other than that i guess i'm just young enough to keep up with the ever changing internet vocabulary


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## USRobinson (May 2, 2011)

The one that I really hate is SMH? I don't even know what that one means does anyone?


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## flashflood (May 2, 2011)

USRobinson said:


> The one that I really hate is SMH? I don't even know what that one means does anyone?


 
Shaking my head.

My favorite is TLA.


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## mvyrmnd (May 2, 2011)

There's been a few occasions where I've been forced to consult a dictionary.

FWIW ( <- One I particularly hate) I find it kind of sad that we even need such a dictionary.


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## DM51 (May 2, 2011)

A reminder to members that this is a family-friendly forum and profanities, even thinly-disguised or abbreviated ones, are not permitted.


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## Steve K (May 2, 2011)

reminds me of a time a few years back... I was at work reviewing a schematic with a work buddy. The schematic was for a fancy new gizmo from one of our suppliers and we were doing a design review. There were a bunch of odd details, so I was scribbling little notes at various places.

My buddy asked about one of my shorter notes; he didn't recognize the abbreviation. I explained, without thinking about it much, "it stands for 'What's The Function?' ". 
That's not really what I intended when I wrote it, of course. 

Steve K.
(hoping that I kept this ambiguous enough for the less corrupted members of the audience)


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## Mjolnir (May 2, 2011)

flashflood said:


> Shaking my head.
> 
> My favorite is TLA.


 
TLA is a TLA, right?


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## srfreddy (May 2, 2011)

SPF:
I think it means sell pending for, but still am not sure.


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## Russ Prechtl (May 2, 2011)

Yup. IIWA, YMMV, IIRC. Aaaaarrrrggg!!!!!!

Why can't we just spell stuff out?


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## mvyrmnd (May 2, 2011)

srfreddy said:


> SPF:
> I think it means sell pending for, but still am not sure.


 
I've always read it as "Spoken For".

edit: after reading Russ' signature, I propose we start a new TLA: TGC

Then in 3 years none of the newbies will have any clue what we're all on about.


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## Norm (May 2, 2011)

SPF Sold Pending Funds
Norm


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## flashflood (May 3, 2011)

Mjolnir said:


> TLA is a TLA, right?


 
Exactly.


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## USRobinson (May 3, 2011)

flashflood said:


> Shaking my head.
> 
> My favorite is TLA.


 
ooooooooooh I thought I thought it was something like suck my head or something like that... hahaha cool happy that's been cleared up


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## Th232 (May 3, 2011)

I'm more annoyed about the redundant phrases you can make with some of them. Like ATM machine.


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## flashflood (May 3, 2011)

How about SMO? It's not even a bleeping acronym! (Just short for smooth.)

I get flustered by pairing a/an with acronyms when it's ambiguous, such as:

- an LOP reflector
- a LOP reflector

If you read the acronym as "ell oh pee" the first is correct; if you read it as "light orange peel" the second is correct. I'm sure there's a Strunk & White rule for this, but the practical effect is that either choice will be jarring to half your readers, so I try to avoid this construct altogether.


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## Steve K (May 3, 2011)

Mjolnir said:


> TLA is a TLA, right?


 
I always liked the circular reference of "TLA", but then one day I realized it's actually an initialism. Acronyms are things that form words, like LASER or FUBAR (I think the "f" stands for "fouled"). Initialisms just a series of the first letters of the string of words, like FWIW.

Back in my days of working at a defense contractor, they actually published a dictionary of acronyms and initialisms! For any given entry (other than the classics), you could find 4 or 5 possible meanings. The defense business was so fond of acronyms that it was common for people to figure out what they wanted the acronym to be, and then contort the key words to fit the acronym.

but... I think my favorite initialism is BFH. It goes back to my days of fixing jets, and refers to the tool used when things didn't quite fit and needed a bit of persuasion. The "h" stands for hammer. The BFW's were handy when you needed a bit of extra torque to loosen a stuck bolt. Of course, this was in the days when the pilots would write up a problem on the aircraft as succinctly as "UHF radio AFU".

regards,
Steve K.


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## Th232 (May 3, 2011)

Steve K said:


> The defense business was so fond of acronyms that it was common for people to figure out what they wanted the acronym to be, and then contort the key words to fit the acronym.


 
Good to see we're not the only ones who do that. When a project has progressed far enough to be worthy of a name it's common to see the creator sitting there with a whole lot of words on the computer screen, just swapping them until a suitable acronym appears. No examples though, they all tend to be rude ones.


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## subwoofer (May 3, 2011)

They are all annoying!

Unfortunately they are simply a sign of the times that people are getting lazier and lazier with their spelling, writing, language and communication skills. Once you get drawn in then you get lazier and continue the perpetuation of this social disease.

I prefer to write things out in full or, only if I am going to repeat the abbreviation, I might then write it in full followed by the abbreviation so everyone would know what I was talking about. I wish everyone would stop using them as soon as possible ;-)


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## hi-fi (May 3, 2011)

A while back one of my friends told me about trouble shooting a computer for one of the executives where he works. He said it turned out to be a NPI error. 

Hmmm, what's that, I asked?

Not Plugged In, he replied.

I thought that was funny.


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## shao.fu.tzer (May 3, 2011)

flashflood said:


> How about SMO? It's not even a bleeping acronym! (Just short for smooth.)
> 
> I get flustered by pairing a/an with acronyms when it's ambiguous, such as:
> 
> ...


 
That one used to get me too... I believe I know the answer but I could be wrong - That's why I always use the first word as a guide... It's "A LOP reflector"... Because "An light orange peel reflector" sounds uneducated.


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## DM51 (May 3, 2011)

3x A2-WH-BK. And don't you dare call them anything else.


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## beamis (May 3, 2011)

Biker Bear said:


> Anyone else stumble over that kind of abbreviation - either because it was opaque or as in my case had multiple interpretations?


 
I only learned a couple of weeks ago about this alternate meaning for the FTW abbreviation. Having grown up in the 80's it always meant what you remember. Suddenly a lot of phrases in various Internet memes became less funny to me with "for the win" added to them.


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## Russ Prechtl (May 3, 2011)

mvyrmnd said:


> edit: after reading Russ' signature, I propose we start a new TLA: TGC.


 
Yes!!!!! :thumbsup:


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## carrot (May 3, 2011)

I'm pretty sure WTF: Megan Fox is Want to Friend: Megan Fox. Amirite? :thinking:

I like LOL, because nobody every actually LAUGHS OUT LOUD anymore, but they sure do say LOL a lot. Whatever happened to good old <g>? Surprisingly ROFL and LMAO seem to have died out, presumably because they are a lot slower to type than LOL. Also acronym haters, this will probably ruin your day: http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2011/03/people-officially-say-lol-out-loud.ars

TBH IMHO, acronyms FTW, FWIW. OTOH, I try to be aware of my audience: when an FNG posts on CPF, I try to spell things out for him, rather than telling him LMGTFY. I know how much of a PITA it can be to have to look things up.

I happen to know of one CPFer (who will be unnamed, _you know exactly who you are_) who likes to make acronyms up on the spot. POYAL of DB, YOM


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## mvyrmnd (May 3, 2011)

carrot said:


> I'm pretty sure WTF: Megan Fox is Want to Friend: Megan Fox. Amirite? :thinking:
> 
> I like LOL, because nobody every actually LAUGHS OUT LOUD anymore, but they sure do say LOL a lot. Whatever happened to good old <g>? Surprisingly ROFL and LMAO seem to have died out, presumably because they are a lot slower to type than LOL.
> 
> ...


 
I had to read your post 3 times to work out what you meant. :sick2:


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## flashflood (May 3, 2011)

carrot said:


> I'm pretty sure WTF: Megan Fox is Want to Friend: Megan Fox. Amirite? :thinking:


 
Your innocence is endearing.


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## Biker Bear (May 3, 2011)

hi-fi said:


> A while back one of my friends told me about trouble shooting a computer for one of the executives where he works. He said it turned out to be a NPI error.
> 
> Hmmm, what's that, I asked?
> 
> ...


My favorite along that line is the PEBCAK error. "Problem Exists Between Chair And Keyboard".


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## Flint&Steel (May 4, 2011)

El Oh El annoys me for some reason.


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## kaichu dento (May 4, 2011)

subwoofer said:


> They are all annoying!
> 
> Unfortunately they are simply a sign of the times that people are getting lazier and lazier with their spelling, writing, language and communication skills. Once you get drawn in then you get lazier and continue the perpetuation of this social disease.
> 
> I prefer to write things out in full or, only if I am going to repeat the abbreviation, I might then write it in full followed by the abbreviation so everyone would know what I was talking about. I wish everyone would stop using them as soon as possible ;-)


I'm so glad to see that I'm not the only one who still prefers writing things out in full - I even do it when sending a simple text message!

The abbreviations that I make an exception for are when I know I'm talking to an audience well aware of their meaning. Quite notably, Ti.


carrot said:


> I'm pretty sure WTF: Megan Fox is Want to Friend: Megan Fox. Amirite? :thinking:
> 
> I like LOL, because nobody every actually LAUGHS OUT LOUD anymore, but they sure do say LOL a lot. Whatever happened to good old <g>? Surprisingly ROFL and LMAO seem to have died out, presumably because they are a lot slower to type than LOL. Also acronym haters, this will probably ruin your day: http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2011/03/people-officially-say-lol-out-loud.ars
> 
> ...


I have no idea of what you're talking about, but about half way through I just started laughing more and more as I realized it didn't really matter if I understood the post or not!

Now can I say ROTFLMAO?


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## beerwax (May 6, 2011)

an L.E.D. 
a led 
a LED 

some folks need to be learned correct gramma.


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## USACelt (May 9, 2011)

I find all this annoying too. I can one up you on annoying.I was standing in a small group, someone said something funny and a young woman in the group, I know you won't believe me, but she says "lol", says the word out loud. 
:sick2:




I think she must have brain damage from a childhood accident or something.


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## PhotonWrangler (May 9, 2011)

The interwebs have more abbreviations than Luxeon has bin codes.


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## angelofwar (May 9, 2011)

"CPF"...why not just spell it out? Makes it much easier to read...plus people don't "end up here" trying to figure out WTF it means...:devil:


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## BriteIdea (May 10, 2011)

I use a few of those but mainly in our industry, which is chuck full of abbreviations.
It seems that some of our abreviations are high tech and if you don't know or learn what they mean, you tend to be out of the loop.

I'd go home at night and maybe talk to my son (also a techy) and we'd chat about this or that, whether ham radio, or our industry shop-talk. 
After a short while, my wife would turn to us and say ABC 123.
The world is full of these and God forbid if any of us had to change our vocation and learn a new industry's tech talk. 

Even if you took a weekend off to your favorite hideaway, you'd still end up in a B&B

I found it comical, that while everyone was talking about abreviations to see how many emotiacons were used :devil:
Ah, the fun of it all.


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## PhotonWrangler (May 10, 2011)

FCC
EIA/CEA
NCTA
NAB
NTSC (color)
ATSC (digital TV)
BTSC (stereo)
AM
FM
PWM
PCM
M&M 
QAM (Quadrature amplitude modulation)
QPSK (Quadrature phase shift keying)
MPEG
MPTS (multiprogram transport stream)
PIDs (Program IDs)
PCR (Program clock reference)
SDI (serial digital video)
HD-SDI
BER (Bit error rate)
MER (Mean error rate)
DOCSIS (Data over cable system interface spec)
CMTS (What cable modems talk to)
VOIP (Voice over IP)
EMI (Electromagnetic interference)
RFI (Same thing, higher frequency)

... I could go on and on...


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## ShineOnYouCrazyDiamond (May 10, 2011)

Not a single person here has mentioned where and why these acronyms started from and there reason in this world. They started when txt messaging started to grow popular but everyone had regular cell phone with numeric keypads using T9 entry. It was a total PITA to type in long words so people starting shortening things and replaces letter combinations with shorter words which phonetically worked (ie: Ill B L8).

I don't see the big deal - if you don't know an acronym google it - next time you will.

BTW - IMHO the thread has me ROFLMFAO! :fail:


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## Empath (May 10, 2011)

ShineOnYouCrazyDiamond said:


> Not a single person here has mentioned where and why these acronyms started from and there reason in this world. They started when txt messaging started to grow popular but everyone had regular cell phone with numeric keypads using T9 entry. It was a total PITA to type in long words so people starting shortening things and replaces letter combinations with shorter words which phonetically worked (ie: Ill B L8).
> 
> I don't see the big deal - if you don't know an acronym google it - next time you will.
> 
> BTW - IMHO the thread has me ROFLMFAO! :fail:


 
Those acronyms were around decades before the concept of texting, or the texting devices. Those in particular were used on bulletin boards (BBS) and Usenet before a PC was even available to anyone other than hobbyists. Acronyms have been in use over a hundred years before that.


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## Burgess (May 10, 2011)

Yet another great CPF thread !

lovecpf
_


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## Dr Evil (Feb 7, 2012)

I hate all acronyms with a passion. That is one thing that sucks about my job. It ticks me off even more when somebody try to pronounce it as a word. Ever heard of EbN0? A coworker pronounced it just like it looks. I gave him the WTF look and asked him "what is that?" Luckily it is on wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eb/N0

On another note, I'm trying to find a list of acronyms used here. I keep running across ones I don't know.


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## jabe1 (Feb 7, 2012)

It seems that much of this has grown from laziness disguised as convenience.

The whole thing drives me crazy. If any of you have a teenage daughter you need to communicate with, texting is critical.
My thumbs are just too large...:laughing:. I do insist on spelling it out (almost always), and proper puntuation.


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## Launch Mini (Feb 7, 2012)

WWW
It is an abreviation that has more syllables when you pronounce it than when you say the 3 real words..
Double you double you double you
vs
World Wide Web

IIRC

YMMV

Pretty much all of them...

oh yeah, and the three dots...


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## ShineOnYouCrazyDiamond (Feb 7, 2012)

jabe1 said:


> It seems that much of this has grown from laziness disguised as convenience.
> 
> The whole thing drives me crazy. If any of you have a teenage daughter you need to communicate with, texting is critical.
> My thumbs are just too large...:laughing:. I do insist on spelling it out (almost always), and proper puntuation.



I don't think that is entirely true.

Most texting acronyms or shortenings come from back in the early days of cell phones (ya know - way back in 1998) when everything was T9 text entry. It was a time saver to type and tell your wife you were going 2 B L8 than the whole thing when you had to click 30 times just to get a character.

The other acronyms that all you guys are complaining about are actually all industry specific acronyms. Every industry has them. I work in IT and I live in a world of TCP/IP, SMTP, WWW, NICs, iSCSI, SATA, SAS, MIME and all that good stuff. Everyone of those acronyms means something to me. But I work in an investment firm and when I listen to the traders talking or my friends in investment banking, well they speak a whole different language of acronyms:NYSE, SEC, PnL, etc. I am sure doctors, engineers, pharmacists and every other industry out there has its own acronyms.

Just because you don't understand them doesn't make there anything wrong with them.


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## Dr Evil (Feb 8, 2012)

The acronyms that really tick me off are real words that than have a word for each letter trying to say something. Take BEAST for example. It stands for Basic Expeditionary Airman Skills Training.


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## nbp (Feb 8, 2012)

Launch Mini said:


> Pretty much all of them...
> 
> oh yeah, and the three dots...



I believe that's actually called an ellipsis.


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## ShineOnYouCrazyDiamond (Feb 8, 2012)

And you would prefer to write Basic Expeditionary Airman Skills Training in a document 1,000 times rather than just BEAST?


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## Dr Evil (Feb 8, 2012)

Copy and paste. That's not the problem though. It seems as if someone thought BEAST sounded cool or hard. Then they came up with a word for each letter.


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## booky (Feb 9, 2012)

ROTFLSHMSFOAIDMT 

Rolling On The Floor Laughing So Hard My Sombrero Fell Off And I Dropped My Taco


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## booky (Feb 9, 2012)

ROTFLSHMSFOAIDMT 

Rolling On The Floor Laughing So Hard My Sombrero Fell Off And I Dropped My Taco


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## Bone_Enterprise (Apr 4, 2012)

While it is not an abbreviation, the trend of everyone saying 'fail' gets under my skin for some damn reason, SMH like already mentioned also does as well.

Then there are the various truncated words that are literally a letter or two a way from spelling the actual word.


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