(~2 minutes to read)
Here at the Hatchery, it’s SNAFU once again, after a period of our schedules being FUBAR. For a while there, my waking thought each day was “ADIH”. AFAIK we should be able to settle into a routine for a while—and that’s OK by me.
Phone’s ringing. BRB.
Sorry ‘bout that.
Texting, Twitter, and instant communication in general have all created a need to say more in fewer characters. The solution? Use abbreviations, initialisms and acronyms. (There’s a whole article about the differences over at my technical writing website).
“OK” is possibly the most well-known and frequently-used abbreviation ever. There are many theories about its origin; the definitive one can be found here. But search the wonderweb for a glossary of texting abbreviations and you’ll find sites offering literally thousands. I won’t be trying to learn them—most are too contrived for my taste. For example, “BOCTAAE” is “but of course there are always exceptions”. “CBARAAHP” is another. “CRAP” seems to be a form of backronym (cheap, redundant assorted products). I could go on.
The love affair with abbreviations is not new though. The above-linked article on the definitive “OK” origin also reports on a trend that developed in Boston (Mass., USA) in 1838, where abbreviations such as “GTDHD” (give the devil his due) where used.
The invention and adoption of the telegraph spawned more abbreviations. “SOS” is far and away the most well-known of that category.
And now we have emojis, made official by the Oxford Dictionary in their 2015 Word of the Year.
I wonder what wordy authors such as Charles Dickens and James Joyce would have thought of these trends? Would they have observed, “ROFLMAO” or “PIMPL”, noted dismissively, “DGAF”, or taken a sterner approach, noting, “FFS! HWGA. GMAB! Damned Yanks were doing this in 1838. ITIGTBS.”
Speaking of abbreviation, I realized last week that I should really be making shorter posts as “bait” for my longer ones. The quote, “If I am to speak ten minutes, I need a week for preparation; if fifteen minutes, three days; if half an hour, two days; if an hour, I am ready now.” is attributed to President Woodrow Wilson, although many earlier quotes express the same sentiment. I sincerely hope that the underlying principle doesn’t apply to web posts. I suspect such hope is futile.
Meanings of abbreviations used in this post can be found here.
G2G—word count maximum reached.