Earliest Acronym (UNCLASSIFIED)
Mullins, Bill AMRDEC
Bill.Mullins at US.ARMY.MIL
Fri Dec 17 19:02:12 UTC 2010
Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE
William Safire noted this same early usage of "SCOTUS" in his NYT column
"On Language" of 10/12/1997.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On
Behalf Of
> Shapiro, Fred
> Sent: Thursday, December 02, 2010 1:32 PM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Earliest Acronym
>
>
> I apologize if someone else has already pointed this out, but Bill's
second
> citation below is very significant in that it may establish the claim
that
> SCOTUS is the earliest known acronym in the English language
(although,
> depending on the precise definition of "acronym," there are some other
> abbreviations in the 1879 Phillips Telegraphic Code that may be tied
with
> SCOTUS for this honor).
>
> Fred Shapiro
>
>
>
>
Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE
------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
More information about the Ads-l
mailing list