What Do You Call It

[lankeela]

when you use initial letters that don't spell another word ie as in acronyms. Initialisms seems such a mouthful - is it ok to still call them acronyms? I am thinking in terms of GHF (glass half full) which you cannot actually say easily.

[Buenchico]

BBC, ITV, Unesco and Nato are all abbreviations.

The first two are initialisms, with the latter two being acronyms.

So you can simply use 'abbreviation' unless you particularly need to make it clear that you're not referring to an acronym.

[lankeela]

Thanks Chris - now waiting for someone to correct me on a fb post for using the word acronym for GHF!

[jim360]

If you want to call it an acronym still you could pronounce it "guh-huff" or something.

[Prudie]

The vast majority of the population would call that an acronym anyway so you might get away with it :-)

[JimF]

Here's an easy way to remember the difference between an initialism and an acronym.

Take the sentence "It costs £10 + VAT."

If you say "ten pounds plus VEE-AY-TEE", that's an initialism.
If you say "ten pounds plus vat", that's an acronym.

[Cloverjo]

With all the mentions of the World Health Organisation during the pandemic, I wonder why it’s always pronounced W H O and not the Who. Or do they think we would we get it confused with the rock group?

[JimF]

The WHO was founded just after the Second World War in 1948, so confusion with Roger Daltrey and his pals is probably not the reason.

[jno]

there was a Terry Thomas comedy in 1961 called "A Matter of WHO". It was partly a comedy (about tracing a smallpox carrier), so they must have half-expected it to be proounced "who".

[Buenchico]

You've got a very long memory, Jno!

[jno]

I have indeed, Chris, I probably saw every comedy made in the 1950s.