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We’re living in a world of acronyms and initialisms. They are both forms of abbreviations that have filtered into our daily lives in a multitude of ways. You see, and probably use them yourself, in text messages and social media. They are all over the news right now. And you likely have been using them your whole life without giving them a thought. But, what’s the difference between an acronym and an initialism?

As with so many English terms, acronym comes to us from the Latin words acro – meaning “beginning” and –onym meaning “name” or “word.” Essentially, an acronym is an abbreviation combining the first letters or syllables of a long series of words. The acronym then becomes a separate word. An excellent example is NASA, an acronym of National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Those four letters combined form an easily pronounceable new word – NASA.

An initialism, however, is a similar grouping of the first letters of a longer series of words which are then simply pronounced as those initials. The Federal Bureau of Investigation is commonly abbreviated to FBI. It’s not an actual word since you are merely pronouncing the letters.

Incidentally, there is no agreed-upon format for writing initialisms. Some style guides insist upon writing them with periods, separating each letter (F.B.I.), while others do not, rationalizing that the initialism is recognizable on its own (PBS, for example.)

In the News

I mention this because acronyms and initialisms are filling the news during this crisis. Indeed, the name of the virus itself, COVID-19, is an acronym. CO (corona) VI (virus) D (disease), and 19  indicates the year it was first identified (2019).

Two previous coronaviruses are also acronyms, and you may hear them mentioned frequently being compared to COVID-19. Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome became the word SARS. That epidemic killed over 700 people, largely in China and Hong Kong in the winter of 2002/2003. Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, or MERS, is a virus that was first identified in 2012. To date, all three coronaviruses have no cure.

The World Health Organization is abbreviated as the WHO and is an initialism. We only pronounce the letters. Yes, it is a word (and also a rock band), but initializing it does not create a unique word.

The Centers for Disease Control is also an initialism, better known as the CDC, headquartered in Atlanta.

Then there’s Personal Protection Equipment, like disposable masks and glove, otherwise known as PPE.

Other Important Examples

Acronyms:

• OPEC – Organization of Petroleum Exporters
• ASAP – As Soon As Possible
• NASCAR – National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing
• SCUBA – Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus
• TASER – Thomas A. Swift’s Electric Rifle

That last one deserves an explanation. The taser, a weapon used to electronically shock people to temporarily disable them, so popular in law enforcement circles and on television shows, was originally described in a young-adult novel first published in 1911. Tom Swift and His Electric Rifle, or Daring Adventures in Elephant Land was a story in a long-running series of books about a teen scientist who had all sorts of amazing, and preposterous, escapades. The Taser has become a symbol of oppressive violence against African Americans, which is ironically appropriate since the original novel is highly racist and offensive.

Initialisms:

• NPR – National Public Radio
• ATM – Automated Teller Machine
• LOL – Laugh Out Loud
• CVS – Consumer Value Stores
• UN – United Nations

While the UN is a perfect example of initialism, one branch of the UN is an acronym. The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, better known as UNESCO, is dedicated to making citizens of the world better informed, educated, and enlightened.

Then there is a fictional branch of the UN that set off many more fictional acronyms. The Man From U.N.C.L.E. was a television series in the 1960s about the United Network Command for Law and Enforcement. It was the basis of a movie a couple of years ago. For a while, there were many fictional secret spy organizations on television, movies, and in books inspired by U.N.C.L.E.