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Abuse of TLA's

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by guruofdos

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Reading through these discussions, I notice an alarming increase in the use of TLA's. Ok, we're in the computer industry...so some of them are valid. For example PCI, ISA, DLL, IRQ or DMA...saves a mouthful of big fat technical words. If anyone askswhat the TLA stands for, we can explain if necessary. But all the bullshit TLA's that are creeping in to our industry, mostly made-up Americanisms, need to be avoided at all costs otherwise the real world out there will only end up thinking that we are bigger nerds than we really are! CEO, MIS, SLA, IPO....? ASM, CIO....who needs them? Call a Director a director, call an engineer an engineer. The guy who heads our service department is the Senior Service Engineer....god help anyone who refers to him as the SSE!!

I'm head of computer systems, research, development, senior network administrator and can often be seen wearing 'many hats' at once. Call me the HCS, ITM, SNA, SIM or any other industry buzzword TLA and you'll be brushing your teeth through the 'back door'! Call me by my name, or my job title or don't call me at all! (Ok, I'll allow you to use the TLA for my alias (GOD!)...)

Oh, just in case you wondered....TLA?

Three Letter Abbreviation!

2 replies

by epepke

Three Letter Acronym, it's usually called.

This is not new. I have a book from the sixties called Space Age Acronyms. It's a thick, hardcover book, filled with nothing but acronyms and their words.

by guruofdos

Actually, an acronym is another word made from abbreviations, e.g. BASIC (Beginners All-purpose Symbolic Instructional Code). If the letters do not spell another word, it is an abbreviation, not an acronym!

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