[Ads-l] Earliest True Acronym

[Geoffrey Nathan]

While I don't want to start a fight here, isn't the proposed etymology
of OK as being from the abbreviation of 'Old Kinderhook' an example
of an early pronounced acronym? It dates to the 1830's.



Geoffrey S. Nathan
WSU Information Privacy Officer (Retired)
Emeritus Professor, Linguistics Program
http://blogs.wayne.edu/proftech/

geoffnathan at wayne.edu

Nobody at Wayne State will EVER ask you for your password. Never send it to anyone in an email, no matter how authentic the email looks.

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From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of Shapiro, Fred <fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU>
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Subject: Earliest True Acronym

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From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of Shapir=
o, Fred <fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU>
Sent: Thursday, December 2, 2010 2:32 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU <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, de=
pending on the precise definition of "acronym," there are some other abbrev=
iations in the 1879 Phillips Telegraphic Code that may be tied with SCOTUS =
for this honor).

Fred Shapiro



________________________________________
From: American Dialect Society [ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of Mullin=
s, Bill AMRDEC [Bill.Mullins at US.ARMY.MIL]
Sent: Monday, November 22, 2010 11:02 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: Antedating SCOTUS (UNCLASSIFIED)

Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE


Walter P. Phillips _The Phillips Telegraphic Code for the Rapid
Transmission by Telegraph_ Wash, DC:  Gibson Brothers, 1879.


p. 59 col 2:
"Pot -- President of the."

p. 65 col 2:
"Scotus -- Supreme Court of the United States"




> -----Original Message-----
> From: Mullins, Bill AMRDEC
> Sent: Monday, November 22, 2010 9:27 AM
> To: 'American Dialect Society'
> Subject: Antedating SCOTUS (UNCLASSIFIED)
>
> Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
> Caveats: NONE
>
> _Milwaukee [WI] Sentinel_ 12/6/1891, p 10 col 1 [Gale 19th Cent
newspapers]
>
> "For instance, the receiver's sounder will tick out the letters
"scotus."
> There is no meaning in this combination of letters, but the operator
gets a
> hustle upon himself as soon as he hears it and writes down, "the
Supreme court
> of the United states." "
>
> _Charlotte [NC] Observer_ 10/18/1892 p 1 col 4 [GenealogyBank]
>
> "The case then came to Scotus.  The case was argued last Tuesday."
>
>
> >
> > A slightly earlier cite is found at America's GenealogyBank.
> > 14 April 1895, _Birmingham(AL) Age-Herald_ 21/3
> >
> > Talking about the United Press "code" in use for about seven years
on the
> > telegraph-to-newspaper circuit.
> >
> > "In addition the more frequent phrases are skeletonized to the limit
of
> > safety.  "Scotus" is "supreme court of the United States;" "potus,"
> > "president of the United States;"
> >
> >
> Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
> Caveats: NONE
>

Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE

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