Monday 13 October 2008

No. 10.: Funny acronyms: F32UA!

There are some abbreviations in the English language (or more often in internet-language if there is something like that) which are so funny or useful I really like them. (OK, I'm not talking about LOL because that's not funny anymore. Everybody uses that even if they could use 'Maan, you're so funny I'll pee my pants!' instead. - That would be funny BTW. )

There are some nice acronyms, aren't nice because of their form, but their meaning. For example IOK2MM, the invention of Joe. Well, that's a good acronym. It's OK to make mistakes.
But it made me think about this: Why don't we use acronyms in public transport like... 'DNLOotW!ID!' instead of 'Do NOT lean out of the window! It's dangerous!'. You don't even have time to read it. It's like: 'What a long sentence... Whatever... I rather lean out than read this...' As you see long sentences are dangerous!

Or we could write formal letters with acronyms. We use Ph. D., or Dr. or Mr. We could write like this:

'D. Mr. A.,
I send this L. b. I want U //Yeah, I know U know this kind of abbrev.! :) // to send me some I. about the start. Eng. course in your L. S. ...'

-- No one could read this out... :) --

There are some useful three or four-letter acronyms like LOL, which I think is the first instant message acronym. And it is totally overused. I know people using these nasty three letters even in Hungarian contexts. Even orally. And it's not that nice. But most of this people play WOW too, so in a way I can understand this kind of language transformation.

There's BTW (by the way), or OK which I'm sure is an acronym, but no one knows its history.

If you are into TV series and you watch The Big Bang Theory (TBBT BTW), the last week they had a hilarious dialogue between Penny and Sheldon. It was something like this:
Penny: What's AFK?
Sheldon: [into his headset] AFK. [to Penny] "Away From Keyboard."
Penny: Oh, I see.
Sheldon: What does that stand for?
Penny: O.I.C....
Sheldon: Yes, but what does it stand for?
(Or there is the also funny 'L3375p34k' where we use numbers instead of some letters, together with acronyms, of course. But that's a whole different story.)

Acronyms are good. So F32UA (just don't forget to describe their meaning for the first time: 'Feel free to use acronyms' this time.)
And the No. 9. is coming ASAP.

3 comments:

  1. Wow, Chris, that was hilarious! Or I could say: 'Maan, you're so funny I'll pee my pants!'
    I especially liked DLOotW!ID! and the worst thing is that I could imagine that one day our great-great-....-great grandchildren will use these and find no difficulties in understanding them at all!
    I'm looking forward to your next posts! ;)

    18 October 2008 11:40

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  2. Looking 4ward 2 C-ing that, 2!

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  3. S-C-H-O-O-L: Seven cruel hours of our lives
    D-R-A-M-A: Dumb retards asking-for more attention

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