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Discussion Groups / English Usage / January 2004A question on certain Acronyms
Hi all, I was just curious on why certain Acronyms have their letters shuffled when the order of the words in their corresponding expansion is different. For ex, MBBS (Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery) or PhD (Doctor of Philosophy) Is there any particular reason behind this. regards, Ramesh. > Hi all, > [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] > > Is there any particular reason behind this. You have mistakenly taken use in English of abbreviations of Latin phrases as abbreviations of English phrases. For example MB = "Medicinae Baccalaureus" PhD = "Philosophiae Doctor." I don't know this "MBBS," which looks like a bastard construction (Latin "MB" + English "BS").  SignatureMartin Ambuhl Martin Ambuhl filted: >> Hi all, >> [quoted text clipped - 12 lines] >I don't know this "MBBS," which looks like a bastard construction (Latin >"MB" + English "BS"). And then there's ISO, which stands for "International Organization for Standardization" (with zeds in both those words, Rightpondians).... Some acronyms *do* shuffle to match word order when they move into other languages; HIV and AIDS ("Human Immunodeficiency Virus" and "Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome" respectively) are VIH and SIDA ("Virus de la Inmunodeficiencia Humana" and "Síndrome de Inmunodeficiencia Adquirida") in Spanish....r > And then there's ISO, which stands for "International Organization for > Standardization" (with zeds in both those words, Rightpondians).... From ISO's website: "What ISO's name means Because "International Organization for Standardization" would have different abbreviations in different languages ("IOS" in English, "OIN" in French for Organisation internationale de normalisation), it was decided at the outset to use a word derived from the Greek isos, meaning "equal". Therefore, whatever the country, whatever the language, the short form of the organization's name is always ISO" Britannica, Merriam-Webster, Wikipedia and AHD agree. Chambers (1993) says ISO stands for "International Standards Organization". So does Encarta. Infoplease has "International Standardization Organization". SBF (Stammtisch Beau Fleuve Acronyms) is skeptical about ISO's claim. Is it certain that the English name for the organisation has not changed? Adrian >> And then there's ISO, which stands for "International >> Organization for Standardization" (with zeds in both those words, [quoted text clipped - 10 lines] > country, whatever the language, the short form of the > organization's name is always ISO" If that's the case, shouldn't it be written "Iso", not "ISO", since it's not an acronym? There's plenty of precedent for acronyms that don't get translated when the underlying name does; e.g. CERN, for "European Laboratory for Particle Physics", according to, among others, acronymfinder.com. The latter source also says that ISO is "not an acronym". SignatureRay Heindl (remove the Xs to reply) Ray Heindl filted: >There's plenty of precedent for acronyms that don't get translated when >the underlying name does; e.g. CERN, for "European Laboratory for >Particle Physics", according to, among others, acronymfinder.com. The >latter source also says that ISO is "not an acronym". (Treading lightly, because some of this may touch on sensitive information): A few years back when we had to come up with an internal record structure *derived* from the ISO 8583 standard, we spent some time considering names for it...we wanted to suggest that it had something to do with ISO, and also to allude to a kinship between this record and the one it replaced, called "g_trans"...I eventually found a pair of Japanese characters that could (with some imagination) be read "GISO" (/'gisoU/) with the appropriate meanings of "imitate" and "ancestor" (because it imitated the function of the older g_trans)...GISO became the name of the new record.... To this day I can't keep people from reading it as "G-ISO"....r Adrian Bailey, after citing sufficient sources to prove them wrong, notes that: > Chambers (1993) says ISO stands for "International Standards Organization". > So does Encarta. > > Infoplease has "International Standardization Organization". And comments: > SBF (Stammtisch Beau Fleuve Acronyms) is skeptical about ISO's claim. That's a joke. > Is it certain that the English name for the organisation has not changed? Yes. SignatureMark Brader, Toronto | "It is one thing to praise discipline, and another msb@vex.net | to submit to it." -- Miguel de Cervantes, 1613 > Hi all, > [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] > > Is there any particular reason behind this. Because they abbreviate Latin phrases rather than English phrases. -- Mike Hardy |
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