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Acronyms: modern and ancient
by RS  admin@creationpie.com : 1024 x 640


1. Acronyms: modern and ancient

2. Acronyms
The denotational definition of an "acronym
" requires the acronym to be pronounceable as a word.

Here are some examples true acronyms. Notice how connecting words such as "and" may or may not be part of the acronym.

3. Laser
The word LASER (Light Amplification by the Stimulated Emission of Radiation) is an acronym, often written as "laser". Laser
The connecting words here are "by", "the" and "of".

4. Multiple letters from one word
Another acronym is RADAR = RAdio Detection and Ranging, where the first two letters of "RAdio" are used to create the acronym.

The German acronym FLAK = Fliegerabwehrkanone (also "Flugabwehrkanone") comes from the German words "Flieger" (flying), "Abwehr", (defense) and "Kanone" (canon).

5. Initialisms
So, FBI = Federal Bureau of Investigation is not an acronym since no pronounceable word is formed by the letters. Instead, it is an "initialism".

In general usage, such letters are often called acronyms, with the letters pronounced individually.

6. Alternative definitions
Sometimes, an acronym may be given other definitions, often in jest, satire, etc.

7. Acronyms using acronyms
Some acronyms are defined in terms of other acronyms. What, for example, is SAX?

The acronym defined using the following.

8. Self-referential acronyms
A TLA describes itself my the defined meaning of the acronym. A TLA is a TLA.

Here are some types of computer memory. ROM is a TLA, and RAM is a TLA.

9. Recursive acronyms
The acronym GNU (GNU is Not Unix) refers to itself recursively (in a circular and thereby never ending way).

A recursive acronym uses itself in the letter definitions.

10. Linguistic pattern
The pattern of creating acronyms is human and is an example of the principle of least effort.

11. Principle of least effort
Linguist George Zipf studied word frequency usage and found that across many different languages, people will (among other things) introduce newly created shorter words to avoid longer harder-to-pronounce words. Some examples include the following. This principle is often called the "Principle of least effort".

In more precise terms, the frequency of usage of any word is inversely proportional to the rank of that word in the frequency tables of words (in the language being used). In a general way, few words are used often while most are used much less often. This principle is similar to the Pareto principle (to be added later).

12. Ancient acronyms
Acronyms have been used since antiquity.

13. Fish in Greek
Verse routeJohn 21:11 Simon Peter went up, and drew the net to land full of great fishes, an hundred and fifty and three… [kjv]
Verse routeανεβη ουν σιμων πετρος και ειλκυσεν το δικτυον εις την γην μεστον ιχθυων μεγαλων εκατονπεντηκοντα τριων και τοσουτων οντων ουκ εσχισθη το δικτυον [gnt]

Fish Fish symbol

153 = number of the fish.
w/h = sqrt(3) = 265/153.
Fish - Ichthus - ΙΧΘΥΣ - ιχθυς

The ancient Greek word "ιχθύς""fish, ixthus" or «ΙΧΘΥΣ» was an acronym where each letter symbolized an important part of Christianity.

John uses a lot of computer science top-down, backward-chaining thinking in his writing.

[John 1, 1 John 1, John 14-19, etc.]

From a Greek geometric construction, the "number of the fish" was 153 - the number of fish caught in John after the resurrection. (fish w/h = sqrt(3) ≈ 265/153)

The approximation ratio is 265/153 and the number 153 was called the "number of the fish". For more on approximation ratios, see Non-rational number approximation .




Information sign More: John 21:11 the number of the fish caught
Information sign More: Merry X-mas

14. Tanakh in Hebrew
The Hebrew Bible is called, in Hebrew, the The Hebrew word "תנייך" (Tanakh) ≈ "Tanakh" represents what is often called the OT (Old Testament). In Jewish tradition, the parts of the Old Testament (Hebrew Bible) are as follows. From the letter sounds "T", "n" and "kh" comes the word "Tanakh".

Information sign More: Hebrew alphabet

15. End of page

by RS  admin@creationpie.com : 1024 x 640