Rockbox General > Rockbox General Discussion
intro sentence @ www.rockbox.org - suggestion
wintermute23:
--- Quote from: Zardoz on June 19, 2008, 07:08:28 PM ---
--- Quote ---They're acronyms which have become words in their own right.
--- End quote ---
my understanding was always that an acronym was an initialised abbreviation which could be, or has been, pronounced as a word in it's own right, like Scuba or Nato, so without the need for CAPITALISATION. Whereas, perhaps, what's correctly called an 'initialism' is capitalised precisely because it cannot be, or hasn't come to be, pronounced as a word as such - eg MBNA, IRS, DOA, RTFM - and so the capitals signal this. This discussion is hilarious!! I feel like such a pedant haha Let Dr. Johnson speak....
--- End quote ---
If an initialism is normally pronounced as a word (NATO, UNICEF, AIDS, USMARIID) then it's an acronym, in the most precise meaning of the word. However, despite being pronounced as such, they are not words and shouldn't be written in lower case. Some acronyms (scuba, laser, radar) have gone on to become words in their own right, essentially divorced from the original acronym.
Take a look at the Wiki pages (or any other half-way scholarly source) for any of the capitalised acronyms above, and you'll see that they exclusively use capitals, despite them being eminently pronounceable.
Zardoz:
how about this for a first line? 'And God said "Let there be Rockbox" and there was Rockbox'
just to get back on topic.
(Wintermute I think you're right. Good point. My capitalising theory was kinda bogus! Somehow 'Nato' looks all wrong next to 'NATO'. What is USMARIID by the way?? And What would Batman do? Probably capitals)
wintermute23:
I goofed slightly there; it's actually USAMRIID (pronounced you-SAM-rid): The United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases.
They've been in a few detective / adventure TV series.
Zardoz:
(Haha ok! Man I hate those forensic-scientist-cop shows!)
ZincAlloy:
--- Quote from: Zardoz on June 20, 2008, 10:03:55 AM ---how about this for a first line? 'And God said "Let there be Rockbox" and there was Rockbox'
--- End quote ---
Many here don't believe in God. LambdaCalculus379 for instance believes in Bob. Others believe in the flying spaghetti monster or a pink, invisible unicorn...
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