Just so you know… if you reduce a series of words to initials and pronounce them as a word it’s an acronym, and if you pronounce each letter individually it’s an initialism.
So when I write a headline using an acronym it’s your job to read it as a word so that you get the pun.
Ironically, TLA the popular “acronym” for three letter acronyms isn’t an acronym, it’s an initialism.
Thanks. That is all.
Comments
oh so that means when i say AFL = affel. IGA = eye-ga. i am converting initialisms to accronyms.
While technically you may be correct (and I’ll know you’ll take that as conceding defeat) surely the meaning has changed sufficiently that initialism is a dead word. What do you think?
I don’t know that it’s a dead word. The fact that Office doesn’t recognise a word doesn’t make it dead… They are two quite separate concepts and have distinct meanings and applications. They also have a huge role to play in the art of punning.
Is ‘punning’ a word?
Answered my own question: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/punning