Abbreviation

For other uses, seeAbbreviation (disambiguation).

Example of 15th-centuryLatinmanuscript text withscribal abbreviations

Anabbreviation(fromLatinbrevis,meaning "short") is a shortened form of a word or phrase, by any method including shortening,contraction,initialism(which includes acronym) orcrasis.

An abbreviation may be a shortened form of a word with a trailing period. For example:etceterais usually abbreviatedetc.andabbreviationis sometimes abbreviatedabbr.,abbrv.,orabbrev..But sometimes the trailing period is not used for such shortened forms.

Acontractionis an abbreviation formed by replacing letters with an apostrophe. Examples includeI'mforI amandli'lforlittle.

Aninitialismoracronymis an abbreviation consisting of the initial letter of a sequence of words without other punctuation. For example,FBI(/ˌɛf.biːˈaɪ/),USA(/ˌjuː.ɛsˈeɪ/),IBM(/ˌaɪ.biːˈɛm/),BBC(/ˌbiː.biːˈsiː/). When initialism is used as the preferred term, acronym refers more specifically to when the abbreviation is pronounced as a word rather than as separate letters; examples includeSWATandNASA.

Initialisms, contractions and crasis share somesemanticandphoneticfunctions, and are connected by the termabbreviationin loose parlance.

History

See also:Scribal abbreviation

In early times, abbreviations may have been common due to the effort involved in writing (many inscriptions were carved in stone) or to provide secrecy viaobfuscation.

Reduction of a word to a single letter was common in bothGreekandRomanwriting.In Roman inscriptions, "Words were commonly abbreviated by using the initial letter or letters of words, and most inscriptions have at least one abbreviation". However, "some could have more than one meaning, depending on their context. (For example,⟨A⟩can be an abbreviation for many words, such asager,amicus,annus,as,Aulus,Aurelius,aurumandavus.) "Many frequent abbreviations consisted of more than one letter: for example COS forconsuland COSS for itsnominativeetc. pluralconsules.

Abbreviations were frequently used in earlyEnglish.Manuscripts of copies of theOld EnglishpoemBeowulfused many abbreviations, for example theTironian et(⁊) or&forand,andyforsince,so that "not much space is wasted".The standardisation of English in the 15th through 17th centuries included a growth in the use of such abbreviations.At first, abbreviations were sometimes represented with various suspension signs, not only periods. For example, sequences like⟨er⟩were replaced with⟨ɔ⟩,as inmastɔformasterandexacɔbateforexacerbate.While this may seem trivial, it was symptomatic of an attempt by people manually reproducing academic texts to reduce the copy time.

Mastɔ subwardenɔ y ɔmēde me to you. And wherɔ y wrot to you the last wyke that y trouyde itt good to differrɔ thelectionɔ ovɔ to quīdenaɔ tinitatis y have be thougħt me synɔ that itt woll be thenɔ a bowte mydsomɔ.

— Warden ofMerton College,University of OxfordinRegistrum Annalium Collegii Mertonensis,1503.

In theEarly Modern Englishperiod, between the 15th and 17th centuries, thethornÞwas used forth,as inÞ^e('the'). In modern times,⟨Þ⟩was often used (in the form⟨y⟩) for promotional reasons, as inY^eOlde Tea Shoppe.

During the growth ofphilologicallinguistic theory in academic Britain, abbreviating became very fashionable. Likewise, a century earlier inBoston,a fad of abbreviation started that swept the United States, with the globally popular termOKgenerally credited as a remnant of its influence.

Over the years, however, the lack of convention in some style guides has made it difficult to determine which two-word abbreviations should be abbreviated with periods and which should not. This question is considered below.

Widespread use of electronic communication through mobile phones and the Internet during the 1990s led to a marked rise in colloquial abbreviation. This was due largely to increasing popularity of textual communication services such as instant and text messaging. The originalSMSsupported message lengths of 160 characters at most (using theGSM 03.38character set), for instance.This brevity gave rise to an informal abbreviation scheme sometimes calledTextese,with which 10% or more of the words in a typical SMS message are abbreviated.More recently Twitter, a popularsocial networking service,began driving abbreviation use with 140 character message limits.

InHTML,abbreviations can be annotated using<abbrtitle="Meaning of the abbreviation.">abbreviation</abbr>to reveal its meaning byhovering the cursor.

Style conventions in English

In modern English, there are multiple conventions for abbreviation, and there is controversy as to which should be used. One generally accepted rule is to be consistent in a body of work. To this end, publishers may express their preferences in astyle guide.

Some controversies that arise are described below.

Capitalization

If the original word was capitalized then the first letter of its abbreviation should retain the capital, for example Lev. forLeviticus.When a word is abbreviated to more than a single letter and was originally spelled with lower case letters then there is no need for capitalization. However, when abbreviating a phrase where only the first letter of each word is taken, then all letters should be capitalized, as in YTD foryear-to-date,PCB forprinted circuit boardand FYI forfor your information.However, see the following section regarding abbreviations that have become common vocabulary: these are no longer written with capital letters.

Periods

Sign in New York City subway, reading "Penna." for Pennsylvania, showing American style of including the period even for contractions.

A period (a.k.a. full stop) is sometimes used to signify abbreviation, but opinion is divided as to when and if this convention is best practice.

According toHart's Rules,a word shortened by dropping letters from the end terminates with a period, whereas a word shorted by dropping letters from the middle does not.Fowler's Modern English Usagesays a period is used for both of these shortened forms, but recommends against this practice: advising it only for end-shortened words and lower-case initialisms; not for middle-shortened words and upper-case initialisms.

Full form	Shortening	Short form	Source
Doctor	mid	Dr	D——r
Professor	end	Prof.	Prof...
The Reverend	end	Rev.	Rev...
The Reverend	mid	Revd	Rev——d
The Right Honourable	mid and end	Rt Hon.	R——t Hon...

Some British style guides, such as forThe GuardianandThe Economist,disallow periods for all abbreviations.

InAmerican English,the period is usually included regardless of whether or not it is a contraction, e.g.Dr.orMrs..In some cases, periods are optional, as in eitherUSorU.S.forUnited States,EUorE.U.forEuropean Union,andUNorU.N.forUnited Nations.There are some house styles, however—American ones included—that remove the periods from almost all abbreviations. For example:

• The U.S.Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devicesadvises that periods should not be used with abbreviations on road signs, except for cardinal directions as part of a destination name. (For example,"Northwest Blvd","W. Jefferson",and"PED XING"all follow this recommendation.)
• AMA style,used in manymedical journals,uses no periods in abbreviations or acronyms, with almost no exceptions. Thuseg,ie,vs,et al,Dr,Mr,MRI,ICU,and hundreds of others contain no periods. The only exceptions areNo.(an abbreviation ofNumero,Number), to avoid confusion with the word "No";initials within persons' names (such as" George R. Smith "); and" St. "within persons' names when the person prefers it (such as" Emily R. St. Clair ") (but not in city names such asSt LouisorSt Paul).

Acronyms that were originally capitalized (with or without periods) but have since entered the vocabulary as generic words are no longer written with capital letters nor with any periods. Examples aresonar,radar,lidar,laser,snafu,andscuba.

When an abbreviation appears at the end of a sentence, only one period is used:The capital of the United States is Washington, D.C.

In the past, some initialisms were styled with a period after each letter and a space between each pair. For example,U. S.,but today this is typicallyUS.

Plural

There are multiple ways to pluralize an abbreviation. Sometimes this accomplished by adding an apostrophe and ans('s), as in "two PC's have broken screens". But, some find this confusing since the notation can indicatepossessive case.And, this style is deprecated by many style guides. For instance,Kate Turabian,writing about style in academic writings,allows for an apostrophe to form plural acronyms "only when an abbreviation contains internal periods or both capital and lowercase letters". For example, "DVDs" and "URLs" and "Ph.D.'s", while theModern Language Associationexplicitly says, "do not use an apostrophe to form the plural of an abbreviation". Also, theAmerican Psychological Associationspecifically says,"without an apostrophe".

However, the 1999 style guide forThe New York Timesstates that the addition of an apostrophe is necessary when pluralizing all abbreviations, preferring "PC's, TV's and VCR's".

Forming a plural of an initialization without an apostrophe can also be used for a number, or a letter. Examples:

• Runs batted in,RBIs
• The roaring 20s
• Mind your Ps and Qs

For units of measure, the same form is used for both singular and plural. Examples:

• 1 lb or 20 lb
• 1 ft or 16 ft
• 1 min or 45 min

When an abbreviation contains more than one period,Hart's Rulesrecommends putting thesafter the final one. Examples:

• Ph.D.s
• M.Phil.s
• the d.t.s

However, the same plurals may be rendered less formally as:

• PhDs
• MPhils
• the DTs. (This is the recommended form in theNew Oxford Dictionary for Writers and Editors.)

According toHart's Rules,an apostrophe may be used in rare cases where clarity calls for it, for example when letters or symbols are referred to as objects.

• The x's of the equation
• Dot the i's and cross the t's

However, the apostrophe can be dispensed with if the items are set in italics or quotes:

• Thexs of the equation
• Dot the 'i's and cross the 't's

In Latin, and continuing to the derivative forms in European languages as well as English, single-letter abbreviations had the plural being a doubling of the letter for note-taking. Most of these deal with writing and publishing. A few longer abbreviations use this as well.

Singular abbreviation	Word/phrase	Plural abbreviation	Discipline
d.	didot	dd.	typography
f.	following line or page	ff.	notes
F.	folio	Ff.	literature
h.	hand	hh.	horse height
J.	Justice	JJ.	law (job title)
l.	line	ll.	notes
MS	manuscript	MSS	notes
op.	opus (plural: opera)	opp.	notes
p.	page	pp.	notes
Q.	quarto	Qq.	literature
s. (or§)	section	ss. (or §§)	notes
v.	volume	vv.	notes

Conventions followed by publications and newspapers

United States

Publications based in the U.S. tend to follow the style guides ofThe Chicago Manual of Styleand theAssociated Press.The U.S. government follows a style guide published by theU.S. Government Printing Office.TheNational Institute of Standards and Technologysets the style for abbreviations of units.

United Kingdom

Many British publications follow some of these guidelines in abbreviation:

• For the sake of convenience, many British publications, including theBBCandThe Guardian,have completely done away with the use of periods in all abbreviations. These include:
  • Social titles, e.g. Ms or Mr (though these would usually have not had periods—see above) Capt, Prof,etc.;
  • Two-letter abbreviations for countries ("US",not"U.S.");
  • Abbreviations beyond three letters (full caps for all except initialisms);
  • Words seldom abbreviated with lower case letters ("PR",instead of"p.r.",or"pr")
  • Names ("FW de Klerk","GB Whiteley","Park JS"). A notable exception isThe Economistwhich writes"Mr F. W. de Klerk".
  • Scientific units (see Measurement below).
• Acronyms are often referred to with only the first letter of the abbreviation capitalized. For instance, theNorth Atlantic Treaty Organizationcan be abbreviated as"Nato"or"NATO",andSevere Acute Respiratory Syndromeas"Sars"or"SARS"(compare with"laser"which has made the full transition to an English word and is rarely capitalised at all).
• Initialisms are always written in capitals; for example the"British Broadcasting Corporation"is abbreviated to"BBC",never"Bbc".An initialism is also an acronym but is not pronounced as a word.
• When abbreviating scientific units, no space is added between the number and unit (100mph, 100m, 10cm, 10°C). (This is contrary to the SI standard; see below.)

Miscellaneous and general rules

• A doubled letter appears in abbreviations of some Welsh names, as inWelshthe double "l" is a separate sound: "Ll. George" for (British prime minister)David Lloyd George.
• Some titles, such as "Reverend" and "Honourable", are spelt out when preceded by "the", rather than as "Rev." or "Hon." respectively. This is true for most British publications, and some in the United States.
• A repeatedly used abbreviation should be spelt out for identification on its first occurrence in a written or spoken passage.Abbreviations likely to be unfamiliar to many readers should be avoided.

Measurements: abbreviations or symbols

Writers often use shorthand to denote units of measure. Such shorthand can be an abbreviation, such as "in" for "inch"or can be a symbol such as" km "for"kilometre".

In theInternational System of Units(SI) manualthe word "symbol" is used consistently to define the shorthand used to represent the various SI units of measure. The manual alsodefines the way in which units should be written,the principal rules being:

• The conventions for upper and lower case letters must be observed—for example 1 MW (megawatts) is equal to 1,000,000wattsand 1,000,000,000 mW (milliwatts).
• No periods should be inserted between letters—for example "m.s" (which is an approximation of "m·s", which correctly usesmiddle dot) is the symbol for "metres multiplied by seconds", but "ms" is the symbol for milliseconds.
• No periods should follow the symbol unless the syntax of the sentence demands otherwise (for example a full stop at the end of a sentence).
• The singular and plural versions of the symbol are identical—not all languages use the letter "s" to denote a plural.

Syllabic abbreviation

A syllabic abbreviation is usually formed from the initial syllables of several words, such asInterpol=International+police.It is a variant of the acronym. Syllabic abbreviations are usually written usinglower case,sometimes starting with acapital letter,and are always pronounced as words rather than letter by letter. Syllabic abbreviations should be distinguished fromportmanteaus,which combine two words without necessarily taking whole syllables from each.

Albanian

In Albanian, syllabic acronyms are sometimes used for composing a person's name, such asMigjeni– an abbreviation from his original name (Millosh Gjergj Nikolla) a famous Albanian poet and writer – orASDRENI(Aleksander Stavre Drenova), another famous Albanian poet.

Other such names which are used commonly in recent decades are GETOAR, composed fromGegeria+Tosks(representing the two main dialects of the Albanian language, Gegë and Toskë), andArbanon- which is an alternative way used to describe all Albanian lands.

English

Syllabic abbreviations are not widely used in English. Some UK government agencies such asOfcom(Office of Communications) and the formerOftel(Office of Telecommunications) use this style.

New York Cityhas various neighborhoods named by syllabic abbreviation, such asTribeca(Triangle below Canal Street) andSoHo(South of Houston Street). This usage has spread into other American cities, givingSoMa,San Francisco (South of Market) andLoDo, Denver(Lower Downtown), amongst others.

Chicago-based electric service providerComEdis a syllabic abbreviation ofCommonwealthand (Thomas)Edison.

Sections ofCaliforniaare also often colloquially syllabically abbreviated, as in NorCal (Northern California), CenCal (Central California), and SoCal (Southern California). Additionally, in the context of Los Angeles, the syllabic abbreviation SoHo (Southern Hollywood) refers to the southern portion of theHollywoodneighborhood.

Partially syllabic abbreviations are preferred by the US Navy, as they increase readability amidst the large number of initialisms that would otherwise have to fit into the same acronyms. HenceDESRON6is used (in the full capital form) to mean "Destroyer Squadron 6", whileCOMNAVAIRLANTwould be "Commander, Naval Air Force (in the) Atlantic."

Syllabic abbreviations are a prominent feature ofNewspeak,the fictional language ofGeorge Orwell's dystopian novelNineteen Eighty-Four.The political contractions of Newspeak—Ingsoc(English Socialism),Minitrue(Ministry of Truth),Miniplenty(Ministry of Plenty)—are described by Orwell as similar to real examples of German(q.v.)and Russian contractions (q.v.)in the 20th century. LikeNazi(Nationalsozialismus) andGestapo(Geheime Staatspolizei),politburo(Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union),Comintern(Communist International),kolkhoz(collective farm), andKomsomol(Young Communists' League), the contractions in Newspeak are supposed to have a political function by virtue of their abbreviated structure itself: nice sounding and easily pronounceable, their purpose is to mask all ideological content from the speaker.

A more recent syllabic abbreviation has emerged with the diseaseCOVID-19(Corona Virus Disease 2019) caused by theSevere acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2(itself frequently abbreviated toSARS-CoV-2,partly an initialism).

German

Syllabic abbreviations were and are common inGerman;much like acronyms in English, they have a distinctly modern connotation, although contrary to popular belief, many date back to before1933,if not the end ofthe Great War.Kriminalpolizei,literallycriminal policebut idiomatically theCriminal Investigation Departmentof any German police force, begatKriPo(variously capitalised), and likewiseSchutzpolizei(protection policeoruniform department) begatSchuPo.Along the same lines, the Swiss Federal Railways' Transit Police—theTransportpolizei—are abbreviated as theTraPo.

With the National Socialist German Workers' Party gaining power came a frenzy of government reorganisation, and with it a series of entirely new syllabic abbreviations. The single national police force amalgamated from theSchutzpolizeienof the various states became the OrPo (Ordnungspolizei,"order police" ); the state KriPos together formed the "SiPo" (Sicherheitspolizei,"security police" ); and there was also theGestapo(Geheime Staatspolizei,"secret state police" ). The new order of theGerman Democratic Republicin the east brought about a consciousdenazification,but also a repudiation of earlier turns of phrase in favour of neologisms such asStasiforStaatssicherheit( "state security", the secret police) andVoPoforVolkspolizei.The phrasepolitisches Büro,which may be rendered literally as "office of politics" or idiomatically as "political party steering committee", becamePolitbüro.

Syllabic abbreviations are not only used in politics, however. Many business names, trademarks, and service marks from across Germany are created on the same pattern: for a few examples, there isAldi,fromTheo Albrecht,the name of its founder, followed bydiscount;Haribo,fromHans Riegel,the name of its founder, followed byBonn,the town of its head office; andAdidas,fromAdolf "Adi" Dassler,the nickname of its founder followed by his surname.

Russian

Syllabic abbreviations are very common in Russian, Belarusian and Ukrainian languages. They are often used as names of organizations. Historically, popularization of abbreviations was a way to simplify mass-education in 1920s (seeLikbez).

Leninist organisations such as theComintern(Communist International) andKomsomol(Kommunisticheskii Soyuz Molodyozhi,or "Communist youth union" ) used Russian language syllabic abbreviations. In the modern Russian language, words likeRosselkhozbank(from Rossiysky selskokhozyaystvenny bank —Russian Agricultural Bank,RusAg) andMinobrnauki(from Ministerstvo obrazovaniya i nauki — Ministry of Education and Science) are still commonly used. In nearbyBelarus,there areBeltelecom(Belarus Telecommunication) and Belsat (Belarus Satellite).

Spanish

Syllabic abbreviations are common inSpanish;examples abound in organization names such asPemexforPetróleos Mexicanos( "Mexican Petroleums" ) or Fonafifo forFondo Nacional de Financimiento Forestal(National Forestry Financing Fund).

Malay and Indonesian

In Southeast Asian languages, especially inMalay languages,abbreviations are common; examples includePetronas(forPetroliam Nasional,"National Petroleum" ), its Indonesian equivalentPertamina(from its original namePerusahaan Pertambangan Minyak dan Gas Bumi Negara,"State Oil and Natural Gas Mining Company" ), andKemenhub(fromKementerian Perhubungan,"Ministry of Transportation" ).

Malaysian abbreviation often uses letters from each word, while Indonesia usually uses syllables; although some cases do not follow the style. For example, general elections in Malaysian Malay often shortened into PRU (pilihanrayaumum) while Indonesian often shortened into pemilu (pemilihanumum). Another example is Ministry of Health in which Malaysian Malay uses KKM (KementerianKesihatanMalaysia), compared to Indonesian Kemenkes (KementerianKesehatan).

Chinese and Japanese kanji

East Asian languages whose writing systems useChinese charactersform abbreviations similarly by using key Chinese characters from a term or phrase. For example, in Japanese the term for theUnited Nations,kokusai rengō( quốc tế liên hợp ) is often abbreviated tokokuren( quốc liên ). (Such abbreviations are calledryakugo( lược ngữ ) in Japanese; see alsoJapanese abbreviated and contracted words). The syllabic abbreviation ofkanjiwords is frequently used for universities: for instance,Tōdai( đông đại ) forTōkyō daigaku( đông kinh đại học,University of Tokyo) and is used similarly in Chinese:Běidà( bắc đại ) forBěijīng Dàxué( bắc kinh đại học,Peking University). Korean universities often follow the same conventions, such asHongdae(홍대) as short forHongik Daehakgyo,orHongik University.The English phrase "Gung ho"originated as a Chinese abbreviation.

See also

• Abbreviation (music)– abbreviation in musical notationPages displaying wikidata descriptions as a fallback
• Blend word– Word consisting of two words put together
  • List of portmanteaus
• Clipping (morphology)– Reduction of a word to one of its parts
• Gramogram– Group of letters pronounced as if a word
• List of abbreviations used in medical prescriptions
• List of abbreviations in photography
• Acronym– Abbreviation consisting of initial letters of a phrase
  • List of acronyms
• List of business and finance abbreviations
• List of classical abbreviations
• List of medieval abbreviations
• Neologism– Recent term that is gaining acceptance
• Numeronym– Number-based word
• RAS syndrome– Acronym redundantly coupled with its word(s)
• SMS language– Abbreviated slang used in text messaging
• Three-letter acronym– Abbreviation consisting of three letters
• The abbreviations used in the 1913 edition of Webster's dictionary
• Unicode alias names and abbreviations– Names and aliases of Unicode characters

External links

• Media related toAbbreviationat Wikimedia Commons
• AcronymsatCurlie