Don’t Misuse the Concept of ‘Acronyms’ and Please Avoid Using It: An Appeal to Writers

ACRONYMS are words formed from the initial letters (usually one, sometimes more) of other words such as AIDS which has been formed from Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome and/or LASER formed from the first letters of the words Amplification of radiation stimulated emission light.

Some of the other popular acronyms are:

UNESCO: United Nations Organization for Education, Social Culture (There are several acronyms related to UNO)

SAARC; South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation.

AIIMS: All India Institute of Medical Sciences.

CAD: Computer Aided Design.

COBOL: Common Business Oriented Language.

ESRO: European Space Research Organization.

HUDCO: Housing and Urban Development Corporation.

JIPMER: Jawaharlal Institute of Medical Education and Research

NASA: National Aeronautics and Space Administration (USA)

(The list is endless. Readers are kindly requested to consult a good general knowledge book for a fairly comprehensive list of acronyms.)

From the examples above, it can be seen that the essential characteristics of an acronym are:

1. They must be formed only from the initial letters of the other words.

2. They must form a complete word. There should be no period between the letters.

3. When typing, all letters must be capitalized.

4. It is not necessary that they have anything to do with the meaning of the main words. (Ref. AIDS and main words)

But in practice, this concept is often misused by not following some/all of the rules of acronym characteristics. For example, in the sentence “I am an MBBS”, MBBS is not an acronym because there are dots between the letters. Also ‘Viscom’ (Visual Communications) is not an acronym because the content is not single letters and is written in lowercase. Neither Rs (rupees) nor Mike (Michael) are acronyms and are just abbreviations.

I wish to record a very crude use of this concept even internationally.

There is a general saying that NEWS is an acronym for North, East, West and South, which is absolutely wrong. News is a separate word that means new happenings. Needless to add, ancient events are not news but just history. They say that information is collected from four addresses, and therefore the four abbreviated addresses are marked as NEWS. That is not correct because not all letters are capitalized and amplification need not have a similar meaning with abbreviated words. Second, there are more addresses than the four mentioned. News from space is also obtained.

Another incorrect use of this concept is the word LIONS. Persons belonging to Lions Clubs International record that the LIONS amplification is “Liberty, intelligence and security of our nations”, whose meaning only God knows. If “LIONS” does not mean the animal king Lion, then how are the children of the members known. like LION CUBS and his life mate, the Lion ladies? Are they ladies from ‘Liberty, Intelligence and Security of our Nation’? A more important observation is that it is LION’S CLUBS INTERNATIONAL and not merely National. Therefore, the question of ‘The Security of Our Nation’ is not clear that they are coining some words to accommodate the initials.

Therefore, the Lions clubs are crucifying the English words through an immature translation. (The author of this article was an active LION member for twenty years and has spent a considerable portion of his savings on social services through LIONS clubs.)

Certain people make their own abbreviations and extensions. In college student elections, we have seen this use frequently. Suppose a contestant’s name is Sita, there will be signs saying Elect and select S (sincere), I (intelligent), T (Talented), A (Active) and so on as if Sita were an acronym for the four words mentioned . What if opponents write as Sleepy, Scheming, Devious, and Steadfast?

Therefore, it is my fervent appeal to students and scholars of the English language to desist from crucifying the language by misusing this concept of acronyms. Acronyms are used for brevity and clarity. They are also sometimes used as a ‘secret code’. Let’s not misuse this concept for narrow-minded purposes.