acronyms versus abbreviations

[Jonathan Lighter]

Ordinarily I'd assume that was a joke. But considering the source, who knows?

  JL

Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
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Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Wilson Gray
Subject: Re: acronyms versus abbreviations
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Jim, are you pulling a Larry, trying to slip in a pun instead of
seriously asking for information? Bad boy! ;-)

FWIW, I once had a sumer job circumsising elephants for the St. Louis
Zoo. The pay was only minimum wage, but the tips were HUGE!

-Wilson


On 2/24/06, Landau, James wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: "Landau, James"
> Subject: Re: acronyms versus abbreviations
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Mark Mandel wrote:
> >Back when I worked at Dragon Systems, I'm pretty sure that one of our
> references was a Dictionary of Initialisms=20
> >and Acronyms. I don't remember who published it.
>
> I too remember that book. A copy was in the (now-closed) FAA Technical
> Center library.
>
> Pronounceable acronyms/initialisms go wa-a-ay back. The Old Testament
> is referred to in Hebrew as "Tanakh", from "Torah" (Law), "Nebiim"
> (Prophets), and "Ketubim" (Writings), those being the three sections of
> the Jewish canon of Scripture. I don't know when the shortened form
> "Tanakh" was coined, but Jesus (of Nazareth, not Jesus ben Sirach who
> made the Catholic but not the Jewish or Protestant canons) came close to
> using it in the Sermon on the Mount: "...not one jot or tittle of the
> Law or the Prophets shall be changed".
>
> Aside to Wilson Gray: The existence of "neo-blaxploitation" filmmakers
> implies that at one time there was a "Classic Age" of blaxploitation
> films. Correct?
>
> - Jim Landau
>
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>
> How do you circumcize a whale? You use four skin divers.
>
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> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

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