Short takes: INITIALISM

[false]

IIRC, there are other "laconics" dating back to the 18th century, including a poem (?) I posted here some time ago.  (I have no idea what to search the archives for, however.)

Joel

--- On Wed, 3/31/10, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU> wrote:


> To expand a bit--this is the context for the alphanumeric
> B4 code,
> courtesy of AWR's papers on the shootout at the "O.K."
> corral
> appearing as Chapters 10-15 of PADS [Publications of the
> American
> Dialect Society] 86, and discussed in my ads-l posting of
> 6/28/02
>
>  From a poem reprinted in 1832, "To Miss Catherine Jay, of
> Utica":
>
> Oh KTJ is far B4
> All other maids IC;
> Her XLNC I adore
> As a lovely NTT.
>
> Other "laconics" AWR cites from the popular press of the
> 1830s
> (besides "K.Y." for 'know yuse' and "O.K." for 'all
> korrect') were
> "K.G" for 'know go', "O.W." for 'oll wright", and "N.S."
> for 'nuff
> said.' The first appearance of the three R's (for Readin',
> Ritin',
> and Rithmetic) also stems from the 1830s.  And this
> was before txt
> msgs became popular...

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