Initialisms

Do you know what an initialism is? Sure you do. I bet you use them every day. I try to avoid using them, mainly because I find them irritating, but mostly because I don't know what half of them mean!

A lot of people think initialisms are acronyms, but they aren't. Not really. There is a difference between the two. According to the dictionary:

Acronyms are words formed from the initial letters or group of letters in a set phrase or series of words, as scuba (self-contained underwater breathing apparatus), radar (radio detection and ranging), and laser (light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation).

Initialisms are a set of initials representing a name, organization, or the like, with each letter pronounced separately, as FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation), LOL (laughing out loud) and ASAP (as soon as possible).

So if you use it as a word, it's an acronym. If you pronounce each letter, it's an initialism. Of course, a series of initials can probably mean more than one thing, i.e. LOL. Most people use it as laughing out loud, but it can also be used as lots of love. Guess you really need to pay attention to HOW the initials are used.

And that comes to my story (and why I don't necessarily use initialisms).

At work, one of the project managers sent an e-mail to the group, a request for a subcontractor purchase order. And I knew this because of the subject and the attachment, not from the e-mail, itself. All the message said was:

LMKIYHAQ.

Now, maybe someone who tweets or sends text messages a lot would automatically know what this means. I, however, had to think (poor brain) before I realized that the message said:

Let Me Know If You Have Any Questions.

I jokingly said to my co-worker that the guy probably tweeted too much. In which she came up with her own decipher:

Land My Kick In Your Hairy Ass Quickly.

So, beware of the initialisms you use. They can be misinterpreted other than what you intended!