E.K.G.
I realize that sometimes things come up in your life that you do not want to blog about. Some of that has been the case, but most of it has either been laziness or just being ridiculously busy. I will claim the busy one for now. But here are some thoughts.
Acronyms are funny things. We use them all of the time. Sometimes they are easy to figure out and sometimes they are near impossible. E.K.G. for example would refer to the Electrocardiogram (Elektrokardiogramm in German). That seems like a good abbreviation, but probably since we have spent so much time watching medical dramas or studying biology in school. I figure those are the main 2 reasons. But what else could it stand for?
3 letter abbreviations are the problem. There are a total possible 17576 different combinations of the 26 letter english alphabet with just 3 letters which can be repeated (26^3 for those of you wondering how to calculate that). There are a few combinations that can only be used once due to their distinct nature in the american culture. For example USA or KKK. Some combinations are less likely to be used based on the nature of the words in the english language like XXX. But even then, some letters are not used in the proper abbreviation sense. For example X is used for denoting a cross or in some cases Christ's name. It is also used to give a sense of danger. In the distilling process, it denotes the number of times something goes through a round distilling further refining the process. There are other instances used, but there is no need to go into them.
So, I have been thinking about some of the remaining ones combinations that will often confuse me. For example, the first time I heard about a DDR for a gaming system, I thought why would Germany be a big thing for a gaming system. I mean, if David Hasselhoff was marketing them, I would understand, but I was confused. Many associations and groups overlap 3 letter acronyms too. For example AMS stands for both American Meteorological Society and American Mathematical Society (even though math managed to get the domain name first).
There are many funny ones too. Can you think of any?
Acronyms are funny things. We use them all of the time. Sometimes they are easy to figure out and sometimes they are near impossible. E.K.G. for example would refer to the Electrocardiogram (Elektrokardiogramm in German). That seems like a good abbreviation, but probably since we have spent so much time watching medical dramas or studying biology in school. I figure those are the main 2 reasons. But what else could it stand for?
3 letter abbreviations are the problem. There are a total possible 17576 different combinations of the 26 letter english alphabet with just 3 letters which can be repeated (26^3 for those of you wondering how to calculate that). There are a few combinations that can only be used once due to their distinct nature in the american culture. For example USA or KKK. Some combinations are less likely to be used based on the nature of the words in the english language like XXX. But even then, some letters are not used in the proper abbreviation sense. For example X is used for denoting a cross or in some cases Christ's name. It is also used to give a sense of danger. In the distilling process, it denotes the number of times something goes through a round distilling further refining the process. There are other instances used, but there is no need to go into them.
So, I have been thinking about some of the remaining ones combinations that will often confuse me. For example, the first time I heard about a DDR for a gaming system, I thought why would Germany be a big thing for a gaming system. I mean, if David Hasselhoff was marketing them, I would understand, but I was confused. Many associations and groups overlap 3 letter acronyms too. For example AMS stands for both American Meteorological Society and American Mathematical Society (even though math managed to get the domain name first).
There are many funny ones too. Can you think of any?
posted by The Pagets in Florida at 11:01 AM
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