Definition:
A shortened form of a word or phrase, such as Jan. for January. See also:
- Acronym
- Common Scholarly Abbreviations
- Commonly Confused Latin Abbreviations in English
- State Abbreviations
- Common Revision Symbols and Abbreviations
Etymology:
From the Latin, "short"Examples and Observations:
- "In general, spell out the names of government bureaus and agencies, well-known organizations, companies, etc., on first reference. In later references, use short forms like the agency or the company when possible because handfuls of initials make for mottled typography and choppy prose."
(A. Siegal, The New York Times Manual of Style and Usage, 1999) - "I will not use abbrev."
(Bart Simpson) - "Abbreviations may be ironic, humorous, or whimsical: for example, the rail link between the town of Bedford and the London station of St. Pancras is locally known as the Bedpan Line; a comparable link for Boston, New York, and Washington is the Bosnywash circuit. Comments on life may be telescoped into such sardonic packages as: BOGSAT a Bunch Of Guys Sitting Around a Table (making decisions about other people); GOMER Get Out of My Emergency Room (said by physicians to hypochondriacs); MMMBA Miles and Miles of Bloody Africa (an in-group term among people who have to travel those miles); TGIF Thank God It's Friday (after a particularly hard working week)."
(Tom McArthur, The Oxford Companion to the English Language, 1992) - "It's a superstition that abbreviations shouldn't be used in serious writing and that it's good style to spell everything out. Nonsense: use abbreviations whenever they are customary and won't attract the attention of the reader."
(Rudolf Flesch, The ABC of Style, Harper, 1964) - "And now we have the World Wide Web (the only thing I know of whose shortened form--'www'--takes three times longer to say than what it's short for)."
(Douglas Adams)
Pronunciation: ah-BREE-vee-AY-shun
Also Known As: abbrev.
