BBQ (1951)

[Joanne M. Despres]

On 28 Oct 2003, at 8:47, David Bowie wrote:

 > Is "BBQ" really an abbreviation? I wonder because i conducted a series of
> sociolinguistic interviews a few years ago where i asked about barbecue--and
> as i recall, i had a couple people inform me that the correct spelling is
> BBQ, and that "barbecue" is just something that people came up with to match
> the pronunciation. (The reverse of a spelling pronunciation, i suppose?)
>
> There's definitely some folk etymology going on here, but it seems that, at
> least in some people's minds, BBQ is an actual spelling of an actual word,
> not an abbreviation.
>
Not being a definer, I can't speak authoritatively about this, but if
"BBQ" is pronounced like "barbecue," I would take that as
confirmation that it's an abbreviation, not an acronym.  If it were an
acronym (i.e., an intitialism that has achieved the status of an
independent word, as opposed to an initialism that merely stands
for a word), wouldn't you expect it to be pronounced something like
"beebeecue"?  And wouldn't that pronunciation sometimes take
inflections, as in  "summer beebeecues" or "I had beebeecued ribs
on Saturday"?  I don't think such pronunciations are attested,
though.

Joanne


Joanne M. Despres, Senior Editor
Merriam-Webster, Inc.
jdespres at merriam-webster.com
http://www.merriam-webster.com