Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
No, Grace is right. It's only an acronym if it's a pronounceable word. Eg, "laser" and "radar" are acronyms, but "FBI" is not - it's merely an abbreviation.
|
But the examples given-- BYO, NEA and NASP
are all easily pronounceable as words-- exactly as I pointed out. Byo. See? Say it aloud-- "byo." You can say "byo." You can say "nea." You can say "nasp." The fact that people choose to spell out N-E-A, which can be pronounced as a perfectly cromulent English language word, but say- for example- "nahsah", which could be spelled out as N-A-S-A, is arbitrary.
I've even heard people say "ooofoh" when they are talking about U-F-Os.