----- Original Message ----- From: "James Whitfield" n5gui@cox.net To: amsat-bb@amsat.org Sent: Tuesday, August 05, 2008 4:05 PM Subject: [amsat-bb] Re: OSCAR - Acronym for...?
[snip]
I have had a moderately long technical career, occasionally punctuated by what I now view as futile attempts to get co-workers, most of whom were supposedly well educated, to understand the meaning of the term "acronym". The difficult, and most frustrating, part is in trying to communicate what an acronym is not. COBOL is an acronym, but IBM and BLT are not. ( Since most of the time I have tried to point out the distinction, the reaction that I got was "serious don't care". )
[snip]
IBM and BLT are actually "initialisms".... distinguished from an "acronym" by virtue of not being pronounceable like COBOL, OSCAR, SNAFU, etc.
73,
George, KA3HSW