We explain what an acronym is, a list of examples of this type of abbreviation and what are its differences with an acronym.
What is an acronym?
An acronym is understood to be an abbreviation or set of acronyms that, due to its frequent use, ends up being incorporated as one more word, to the point that many people ignore its origin or the exact meaning of the terms it groups.
For example, the term To be comes from the meeting of the acronyms in English: Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation (that is: Amplification of Light by Stimulated Emission of Radiation), but is ordinarily used as a common word (Notice even how he has an accent in Spanish).
These are often words made up of fragments of two or more words, so do not usually write them with capital letters, as in the case of acronyms or initials, but in the ordinary sense of a common word. But the meaning of the acronym will be equal to the sum of the meanings of the words or terms that compose it.
Sometimes one can also speak of retroacronyms, that is: words of ordinary origin and use, which are reinterpreted as acronyms due to their specific context of use.
Such is the case of the Law USA PATRIOT o American Patriotic Act, which after being formulated was understood as an acronym for Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism (ie: “Unite and Strengthen the United States by Providing It with the Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism”).
Acronyms they are not very common in the Spanish language, although they do have important historical precedents, such as the emergence of the pronoun you, whose origin comes from the initials vs (“your mercy”), contracted in vustandd.
List of acronyms
A list of examples of acronyms can be as follows:
- To be. Of English: Light TOmplification by Stimulated ANDmission of Radiation (“Amplification of Light by Stimulated Emission of Radiation”).
- Unasur. ORnion of Nations SouthAmerican.
- Celarg. Chandle of ANDstudios Thetino-americans Romulus Gallegies.
- Emoticon. Of English: Emotion + Icon (emotion + icon), and then Castilianized.
- UFO. ORobject Vodor Nor Iidentified.
- Radar. Of English: Rait gave Detection tond Ranging (“Detection and measurement of distances by radio”).
- AIDS. Ssyndrome Inmunodefficiency TOacquired.
- Led. Of English: Light ANDmitting Diode (“Light emitting diode”).
- Computing. Formed by the juncture of Informauto actionAttica.
- Unesco. Of English: ORnitedNationsANDducational,Sscientific and Cultural ORrganization
(“Cultural, Scientific and Educational Organization of the United Nations”). - Midi. Of English: Musical Instruments Digital Interface (“Musical Instruments Digital Interface”).
- Cedemun. ECinside of Fromdevelopment Municipal.
- DNA and RNA. TOacid Desoxirribonucleic and TOacid ribonucleic respectively.
- Concacaf. Withfederation CI entertomericana and Caribe of TOpartnerships Futbol.
- Conmebol. WithSuda federationIRicana de Futbowl.
- Hi-Fi. Of English High Fidelity (“High Fidelity”).
- Unicef. Of English: ORnited Nations Children’s ANDmergency Fund (“United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund).
Differences between acronyms and acronyms
While acronyms consist of the grouping of the initial letter of various terms to form an abbreviation written in capital letters (and often separated by periods), acronyms allow a much freer joining of word fragments, whether initials or not, to form a word whose terms are not separated and whose initial letter is only capitalized.
- Acronym writing. Sectur (SecI would challenge Turism), Telmex (Telephony Mexicana) or CorpoMiranda (Corporation for the Development of the Tuy River Basin “Francisco de Miranda”, SA).
- Writing of acronyms. UN (ORorganization of Nactions ORnests), HIV (Virus of the Inmunodeficiency Humana) or CD (of English: Compact Disc, “compact disc”).