"PIN"

[Dan Goncharoff]

I am sure they also refer to NBA basketball and NFL football. All
three refer to organizational names that include the name of the
sport.

DanG

On Thu, Aug 12, 2010 at 12:11 PM, Dan Goodman <dsgood at iphouse.com> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Dan Goodman <dsgood at IPHOUSE.COM>
> Subject:      Re: "PIN"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Charles C Doyle wrote:
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       Charles C Doyle <cdoyle at UGA.EDU>
>> Subject:      "PIN"
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> I know we have discussed the redundancy of the commonly heard "PIN number"; but have we mentioned the fact that, paradoxically, a PIN (or PIN number) need not be a number at all?  That fact just struck me when I logged on to my university's library account:  There, when I am instructed to enter my PIN, what I type is a series of alphabetic characters, with nary a digit.
>>
>> As the frequency of the redundant term "PIN number" also suggests, the basis of the acronym, pretty recently coined, has become opaque.
> USA Today's tv listings of baseball broadcasts include the phrase "MLB
> baseball."
>
> --
> Dan Goodman
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