Acronyms and other shortcuts

LOL. When I first encountered this acronym in text, I thought it stood for Lots Of Love. Admittedly, this seemed a little over-the-top from some people I received texts from. When I finally heard someone say laugh out loud it made better sense. Texting has birthed a plethora of acronyms. And they keep on coming.

There’s a whole codex of these for teenagers evading nosey parents. Here’s a few you’ll want to know: PAW - parents are watching, PITR - parents in the room, PBB - parents behind back, POMS - parents over my shoulder.

Emojis are another whole language. Hearts, thumbs up, smiley face, top of head blowing off, little brown pile, praying hands, Christmas tree, flowers, sunny face. So many. Animated, too. Gifs are fun. So simple to add to a text. They work because they are widely understood.

My mom knew shorthand, an abbreviated language for taking dictation.  She learned this post WWII as she trained in secretarial skills to enter the workforce. I’ve seen her textbooks and practice notebooks. I couldn’t make it out. They were just squiggles on paper. Meaningless to me. This is the problem with acronyms when you don’t know what they stand for.

I run into this when I see an email or business card with a bunch of letters behind a name signifying degrees and licenses. A few are obvious: CEO, RN, MD, EMT. Some of them I have to guess at. If I know where they work, what industry or department, I can get pretty close. I hope. 

Sometimes, it’s a mystery. When you see an acronym in text, like a letter or other document, the actual words it stands for are supposed to be typed out the first time it’s used with the acronym in parenthesis behind it, like this:  American Heart Association (AHA). If you talk about AHA without establishing what that is first, people can get confused. They might think you mean A-ha! Like a light bulb moment. Or Armenian Horse Agency. Well, maybe not that. I made that up. But you get the idea. Acronyms can be nebulous if they aren’t widely known.  

PAW could mean Physicians Around the World or when found in a teen’s text, Party All Week. I’ve learned to Google acronyms and the context they’re found in to tease out the actual meaning. Because we are a visual culture, emojis are more intuitive. Unlike vanity license plates people design with private meanings. Some are humorous and made to make drivers behind them puzzle it out.

Some I’ve never figured out. Some are fun. URRGR8, PB4WEGO, R2D2. BLDLYGO, NCC1701 (a nod to Star Trek). I’ve learned some of them are Klingon words, like QUAPLA, and not acronyms at all. Trekkies. Gotta love ‘em. 

But if an acronym is being used in a professional correspondence, advertisement or website, it should be preceded with the phrase it’s replacing so the unaware have reference to correctly interpret the acronyms in the following text. Just be courteous. It will be much appreciated.