acronyms and initialisms

Smarten up -  Acronyms  and Initialisms

It’s trendy at present to complain about the difficulty of interpreting text speak, but shortening up phrases has been going on for a long time. See if you can decode this discussion I had with a teacher recently:

In the morning during roll call I supervise RATS, then if I’m off class I’ll go to the ILC and see my ESL student . She’s working on the HSC after checking out the VCE in Melbourne and the International Baccalaureate OS. She wants a good UAI so she asks the STLA lots of questions. Yesterday she had an assessment using AV so she wanted to know the DPI on the TV’s LCD screen. She got confused between this AV and TV and the same initials on her DSLR camera. She had previously had a problem with FF on the remote control and ff in her music script. Now she was also having a problem with her SIM card for her phone. Then she asked a question about the ALP so I went on the QT as we’re not allowed to do political Q and A. When the bell rang for RI I went back to the staffroom for some R&R before PGD, but then I had to set up the DVD for the C of E teacher. (Decodings at the end of the blog).  

These groups of letters can be defined as acronyms or Initialisms depending on how they are pronounced by speakers. This however is not always clear. AV is recognizable as an initialism, but it is pronounced as a word. This problem can be complicated by dialect and social strata. 

Initialisms: Groups of letters formed from the first letters of words in a phrase, often military or technological. 

Acronyms

These are words formed from the initial letters of other words e.g. KISS or AIDS. Beware! Where a writer is using word play to create an acronym they may be using other word plays as well e.g. Homophones: BMEWS = Bemuse

Considering then that we use a lot of Initialisms and acronyms in our daily life, we would expect science fiction writers to use them as well. The questions are – in what way? And do es the use of acronyms differ from that of initialisms?

1.       Designations for groups of people, countries or planets.

Acronyms: AFRIC (Lexx: Moss)American Freedom Rangers of the Idaho Convention; B.A.T. (B.A.T.)

Bureau of Astral Troubleshooters; CONSENT( Gundam Savior The Congress of  Settlement Nations);

ESTA(Star Hyke) Exploration of Space and Time Agency; K.I.F.T. (Knight Rider 2000) Knight Industries 

FourThousand ; K.I.T.T.  (Knight Rider 1982) Knight Industries Two Thousand; MIST (Parasite Eve)

Mitochondrian Investigation and Suppression, organization investigating this ;  MUFON (X-files:

Memento Mori) Mutual UFO Network, Inc.; S.E.T.I. (X-files: Little Green Men/My Favourite

Martian/Starman/Alien Hunter/Lexx: Tex Lexx) Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence; SHIELD (Iron

Man) Strategic Homeland Intervention Enforcement Logistics Division; UNIT (D? Aliens of London/World

War Three) United Nations Intelligence Taskforce; WARP (Lexx: Texx Lexx) World Association of

Research Physicists;  

2.       Other life forms: Robots, Cyborgs, Aliens and Computer Intelligences 

ALF (ALF) Alien Life Form; BOYZZ (Bots Master) Brain Operated Young Zygoetopic Zoids; D.I.C.E

(D.I.C.E.)DNA Integrated Cybernetic Enterprises; FRANS 1. (W.E.I.R.D. World)   Free Roving Android 

NeutralisingSystem.  2. (W.E.I.R.D. World)  Robot created by Noah Lane as a security device; F. R. E. D.( 

Stargate SG1:Children of  the Gods ) Field Remote Expeditionary Device;    HoRSE (Space HoRSE)  

Holistic Robotic SlaveEngineers ;  K9 (K9 and Company)Pun for canine ;  M.A.L.P. (Stargate SG1:  

 Mobile, Stargate Atlantis)Mobile Analytic Laboratory Probe; MEGAS (Megas XLR) Mechanized Earth \

Guard Attack System;  M.I.N.D. (Blakes’  7:  Afterlife) Machine Induced Neural Directions;

RALF (Flight of the Navigator) Robotic Assistant Labor Facilitator; S.E.R.C.H. (Star

Hyke ) Ship’s Emergency Recovery Computer Hologram; VICI (Small Wonder) Voice Input Child 

Identicant; V.I.N.CENT  (The Black Hole) Vital Information Necessary CENTralized; V.I.K.I. (I, Robot) 

VirtualInteractive Kinetic  Intelligence; ZAFT  (Gundam Seed ) Zodiac Alliance of Freedom Treaty;

3.       Weapons and other pieces of technology

BMEWS (War Games) Ballistic Missile Early Warning System; DRADIS (Battlestar Galactica 2: 

Fragged Aka  Direction, Range and  Distance); I.C.E. (Babylon 5 : Born to the Purple/Eye of the Storm) Intrusion Countermeasures Electronics; P.O.P.  (The Jetsons: Invasion of the Planet Pirates) Pneumo Osmatic Precipitator; TIA (The Last Enemy) Total information awareness; ZEAF (Terra Hawks) Zelda Earth Atmospheric Fighter

4.       And the Left Overs

AQUARIUM (Earth Final Conflict:  Guilty Conscience ) A quiet ubiquitous Atavus reveals its

 underhanded motives; CAG (Battlestar Galactica 2) Commander Air Group ;  CREAM  (Dark Angel:  

 C.R.E.A.M. Cash  rules everything around me.);  F.E.A.R. (game) First Encounter Assault Recon;

F.R.E. (Island City)  First Rule of Engagement;  PLANT (Gundam Seed) Productive Location Ally on Nexus Technology; SETI (PEP  comics #1) Sacrum, Heart, Innervation, Eyes, Lungs and Derma;  WAG (Weber) Wild Assed Guesses;   W.A.R.S. (Transformers: Robots in Disguise)not defined ;

Initialisms

The same categories work for initialisms as for acronyms, with a different balance between the categories. There are a lot more entries in the initialism category for groups  than in acronyms, partly thanks to the use of various forms of ‘united’ in the naming of groups. It’s not just that easy to make words out of the letters for groups. Perhaps we also like the formality of letters, letting ourselves stand back from groups, keeping a bureaucratic distance.

However, there are about the same number of initialisms and acronyms for other life forms. The initialisms for robots etc.  are more generic, less personalized than acronyms. Writers like to give a name to most other life forms, acknowledging that they have some form of life rather than just being machinery. Humans also like to feel superior to their creations, so using a familiar name demotes the non-human to its rightful child-like status.

There are also more entries for weapons and technology under initialisms. Who wants to feel warm and cuddly with a gun or a weapons defense platform? These need to be distanced by the formality of letters.

A  trick here is that existing Initialisms may be used with different meanings for the letters e.g. C.I.A.

1.       Designations for groups of people, countries or planets.

ACS (Weber) Astro-Control Service; A E U G (Zoids Genesis) Anti-Earth Union Government; AOSS '

(Space Conquest: A Galactic Odyssey)Association of Solar Systems ; CDA (Monsters Inc) Child '

Detection Agency; CDC (X-files: One Son/Medusa;  Threshold: Vigilante) Center for Disease Control;  

C.I.A. (Doctor Who: TheDeadly Assassin ) Celestial Intervention  Agency;  CIC (1. McCaffrey, Pegasus 

in Space  CentralIntelligence Control  2. Weber, Field of Dishonor  Combat Information Centre); CNC  

(Babylon 5: Midnight on  the  Firing Line) Command and Control ;   CPB  (Total Recall 2070)  Citizens 

Protection Bureau; C.P.S. (Hex) Centre for Paranormal  Studies; CRP (Weber, The Short Victorious War) 

Citizen’s Rights Party; CRU (Weber, The Short Victorious War)  Citizen’s Rights Union; CUFON (The 

Silencers) Citizen’s UFO Network; ENSA (Goodnight Sweetheart: How I Won the War) Entertainments 

National Service Association; ESS ( Jupiter Moon)European Space Service; FCA (Deep Space 9:  Bar 

Association) Ferengi Commerce Association; FSA (Blake’s 7: Dawn of the Gods) Federation Space 

Academy;    FSP(McCaffrey, Sassinak ) Federation of Sentient Planets; FSA (Blake’s 7: Dawn of the 

Gods) Federation Space Academy;    FSP(McCaffrey, Sassinak ) Federation of Sentient Planets; FSA 

(Blake’s 7: Dawn of the Gods) Federation Space Academy;    FSP(McCaffrey, Sassinak ) Federation of 

Sentient Planets; IPC (Mars) Interplanetary Mining Corporation; IPX Crusade/ Babylon 5 :Third Space) 

Interplanetary Expeditions;  ISA (Babylon 5 : Rising Star) Interstellar Alliance /(Alien Worlds )International 

Space Authority. ; ISC (Mercy Point ) Inter Species Council 2. (Time Runner ) Intelligence Security 

Command;  N.E.B. (Screamers) New Economic Block ; NCA (2001: A Space Odyssey) National Council 

of Astronautics;

NCIC (Earth Final Conflict: Truth)Group not identified;

RAFTA (Sliders:  The Return of Maggie Beckett) Reticulum American Free Trade Agreement; RCA

(McCaffrey The Ship Who Sang) Race Conservation Agency; TCS (Armitage III) Technological Criminal

Squad; UCM  (Zone of the Enders: Dolores I)  United Colonies of Mars ; U.E.O.(SeaQuest 2032: Brave

New World)  United Earth Oceans; UHR  (Cyber Tracker) Union for Human Rights; UPSF (Irresponsible

Captain Tylor) United Planets Space Force; USG (Legends of the Galactic Heroes) Abbreviation of 

United Space Government; USM  (Alien Resurrection) United Systems Military; USMC (Freedom)   

United States Military Council; USR  (I, Robot ) United States Robotics (company); USSD  (Bubblegum 

Crisis)  United Nations Strategic Space Defence Forces; W.A.A.F. (Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons) 

World Army Air Force ;

2.       Other Life Forms: Robots, Cyborgs, Aliens  and Computer Intelligences 

 AFM’s (Scott: The Empress of Earth) Automatic Farm Machines;  AHW (Pilot Candidate) Automatic

Humanoid Weapon;  CAL (Doctor Who: Silence in the Library) Charlotte Abigail Lux; CMDF   

(Fantastic Voyage) Combined  Miniature Deterrent Forces; C.O.C.(Cyber Chase) Chief Operating 

Cyborg;  CRPR’s (Shadow Raiders) Combat Ready Processing Rigs; DHP (Silent Mobius) Dummy 

Humanity Projection; EBE  (X-files E.B.E.) Extraterrestrial Biological Entity ;  EMH (Deep Space 9: Dr. 

Bashir, I Presume?/Star Trek Voyager); Emergency Medical Hologram ; GMO (Threshold) Genetically 

modified organisms; IL (Battlestar Galactica 1: Lost Planet of the Gods) Illustrious Leader; LMH (Deep 

Space 9:  Dr. Bashir, I Presume?) Long term medical hologram; MM (McCaffrey The City Who 

Fought)Mutant Minorities;  P P A (Star Fleet)  Perfectly Programmed Android; RAI (Teknoman) Robotic 

Artificial Intelligence; U A V  (Stargate SG1 :One False Step)   Unmanned Aerial Vehicle; ULF (Sphere)  

Unknown Life Form;  WOPR (Wargames) War Operation Plan Response;    Z.A.R. Zones for Artificial 

Resources.

3.       Weapons and Other Pieces of Technology

CELSS (Pegasus in Space) Controlled Environment Life Support System; CTR Drive (Starlost) Controlled

Thermonuclear Reactor; DHD (Stargate SG1: Solitudes etc.) Dial Home Device ; EMB (Chameleon 3)

Electro Magnetic Bomb ; EMD (Primeval 4/1 ) Electro -magnetic disruptors; E.S.S. ( E.S.S. Mega) 

European Space Simulator.  IC (2099) Ident-Chip; IEM (Mars) Image Enhancement Module ; IFTL

(McCaffrey Sassinak) In Faster Than Light; MPPT (Time Trax) Miniature Pellet Projecting Tube; RDD

(Doctor Who: The Robots of Death) Robot Deactivation Device; RDS (Doctor Who:  The Invisible Enemy)

Relative Dimensional Stabiliser; UART (K-9 and Company) Universal Asynchronous Receiver Transmitter;

UXB  (Johnny and the Bomb: Déjà Voodoo) Unexploded bomb; ZPM Stargate Atlantis:  Movie Zero Point

 Module;

4.       And the Left Overs 

ATC (Weber: On Basilisk Station)Advanced Tactical Training School ;  ATF (Lexx)Alcohol, tobacco and firearms ; BCFMO (Babylon 5 : Secrets of the Soul) Brightly Coloured Fast Moving Object ; CME( Solar Attack Coronal Mass Ejection); CRS (Earth Final Conflict: Floats Like a Butterfly(  Companion Reaction Syndrome ;

EBO (X-files: Unusual Suspects) Engineered Biological Operation ; ECRO ( Silver Sun) Emergency Close Retrieval Orbit ;  ECT (Stargate SG1: Family)Electro-convulsive therapy ; ECU (Jupiter Moon)European Currency Unit ;

FCF (McCaffrey, Partnership) First Contact Form; FRT  (Space Camp ) Flank Readiness Test; F.T.  (Attack of the Killer Tomatoes) Fuzzy Tomato; FTL (Battlestar Galactica 2)Faster than Light; FUBAR (Stargate SG1, Dark Angel, Battlestar Galactica 2) Fucked up beyond all recognition.

GNS (Weber) Grayson naval ship ;  IKS (Deep Space 9: Sons of Mogh ) Imperial Klingon Ship;; I.L.F. (Doctor Who: Kinda) Intelligent Life Form; IOA (Stargate) ; ISN (Babylon 5 : And Now for a Word..) Interstellar Network News;  

JOAT (McCaffrey: The Ship Who Fought) Jack of All Trades;

MBS (Knight Rider) Molecular Bonded Shell ; MIB (X-files: Jose Chung’s From Outer Space)Men in Black ; MJ (Spiderman) Mary Jane; MPS (Weber The Honor of the Queen)Miles per second ; MRI (Doctor Who: Smith and Jones) Magnetic Resonance  Imaging Chamber;

NDE (Earth Final Conflict: The Sleepers) Near Death Experience;  NDS (Absolon) Neurological Degeneration Syndrome; NEA (Real) Near Earth Asteroid.

P.O.A. (Stargate SG1: Within the Serpent’s Grasp) Point of Arrival ;  RC (Legends of the Galactic Heroes)

Reich Calendar; RDX (TCSC The Riddle of Astro) not defined;

T.I.V. (Red Dwarf:  Better Than Life) Total immersion video games ; TKO (Quantum Leap:  The Right Hand of God/Babylon 5 episode title] The Knock Out

UC ( Legends of the Galactic Heroes)  Universal Calendar ; UFO (UFO) Unidentified Flying Object/(The Abyss) Underwater Flying Objects; UGO (Wargames) Unidentified Grounded Objects; UNN (System Shock 2) Unified National Nominate ; URJ  (New Eden)   Unrecyclable Junk;

VR.5 Series title Virtual Reality; VTF  (Chronicles of Riddick) Visible Thermal Front;  

Z.P.G. (Z.P.G.) Zero Population Growth

ALP – Australian Labor Party;AV – audio visual/ aperture value; C of E – Church of England ; DPI – Dots per inch; DSLR – Digital; DVD – Digital video drive ; ESL – English as a Second Language; FF – fast forward; ff – fortissimo; HSC – Higher School Certificate;  ILC – Independent Learning Centre; OS – Overseas; PGD – Playground Duty; Q and A – Questions and answers; QT – quiet; R&R – Rest and relaxation; RATS – Reading Across the School; RI – Religious instruction; SIM – Subscriber Identification module; STLA – Support teacher learning activities; TV – television/ time value; UAI – Universities Admission Index; VCE – Victorian Certificate of Education;