this post was submitted on 07 Jan 2024
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Mine is OOO for Out Of Office. I always misread it in my head like a ghost and it takes me a few seconds to process. It also doesn't translate to speechβ€”you have to say the whole thing.

Interested to see if others have similar acronyms they beef with.

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[–] CodexArcanum@lemmy.world 138 points 10 months ago (3 children)

POS I find very funny as I'm often working on Point-of-Sale equipment, and most of it is running Poorly Optimized Software, making the whole thing a Piece of Shit for the users.

[–] SuiXi3D@kbin.social 15 points 10 months ago (3 children)

Not an acronym though, but an initialism. Acronyms are said like a word, like CRISPR, initialisms aren’t, like ATM.

[–] milo128@lemm.ee 43 points 10 months ago (1 children)

you're being pointlessly pedantic. Initialisms are also considered acronyms by most defimitions and by common use.

[–] Anonymouse@lemmy.world 5 points 10 months ago (2 children)

I don't think they're being pointlessly pedantic. I've been around POS systems and some people call it by the letters, P.O.S. & others by the acronym, sounding like "pause". Nobody assumes you're talking about a Piece of Shit when you say "pause". Also for OOO ("oooh") vs O.O.O., which doesn't roll off the tongue, but you don't sound like Casper.

Now, being pointlessly pedantic, I find it interesting to think that if we continue to use the word acronym for initialisms, then the word acronym will actually be initialisms! English is weird!

[–] intensely_human@lemm.ee 2 points 10 months ago

Yeah when you say β€œpause” they assume you’re referring to a position.

[–] milo128@lemm.ee 1 points 10 months ago

im not saying theres no difference between pronouncing each lettwer and pronouncing the whole thing like a word, just that both are generally considered acronymns so the correction was unnecessary.

[–] cyberpunk007@lemmy.world 7 points 10 months ago (5 children)

Oh shit. TIL. Also, I guess TIL is not an acronym then lol.

Speaking of ATM, am I the only one that defaults this to "ass to mouth", before realizing they mean asynchronous transaction machine?

[–] intensely_human@lemm.ee 8 points 10 months ago

Automated Teller

[–] emptiestplace@lemmy.ml 7 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)
  • Ass to Mouth
  • Automated Teller Machine
  • Asynchronous Transfer Mode
[–] cyberpunk007@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago

Ah yes this is the one

[–] friedgreenpineapples@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Automated Teller Machine

[–] ilinamorato@lemmy.world 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Hmmm, interesting. I don't know if I've ever heard anyone say "TIL" out loud. When I read it, I say it as an acronym ("till") in my head, but I think if I ever said it out loud, I'd probably go with the initialism ("tee-eye-ell"). All that to say, maybe it's both?

[–] aulin@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago

I always pronounce all initialisms as words if even close to possible. I don't care whether or not they were meant to. Till, fuhtfy, fuhmmuhl, wuhtf, and so on. Some I understand why others might say as individual letters, but others I have no clue because it doesn't make sense to me at all. Why would you ever say double-u tee eff, which is two syllables longer than the actual words?

[–] InFerNo@lemmy.ml 1 points 10 months ago

I always read ATM like that

[–] lseif@sopuli.xyz -2 points 10 months ago

literally no one cares.

[–] bitwolf@lemmy.one 13 points 10 months ago

I used to get a kick out of that at my super market because the brand of machine was "RealPOS" adding one more thing to poke fun at.

[–] aulin@lemmy.world 4 points 10 months ago (1 children)

For years I had no idea Point of Sale was a thing, and always thought people were talking about systems they hated as pieces of shit.

[–] Bytemeister@lemmy.world 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)
[–] troglodytis@lemmy.world 2 points 10 months ago

I'll get you a copy of that memo