There appears to be a lot of confusion over the correct use of abbreviations and acronyms. In this article, Pamela Berman investigates the difference between abbreviations and acronyms, with a view to helping content developers create structurally correct markup.
Author: Pamela Berman
- French Translation of this Article
- A Brief History of the Internet
- The Proper Use of
- Abbreviation and Acronym Defined
- Now What Do We Do?
A Brief History of the Internet
In 1957, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) launched Sputnik. Most of the world was amazed. The United States (US) military, however, was alarmed. About a year later, the US Department of Defense (DoD) created the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) to establish the US lead in science and technology as it applies to the US military. A task force was initiated to create an ARPA plan. The DoD gathered the brightest minds of the time from several fields of study.
By 1966, the ARPA plan was in place. In 1968, the DoD put out a Request for Quotation (RFQ) to build the Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET). The University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) was awarded the Network Center Measurement (NCM) contract. In 1969, ARPANET was commissioned by the DoD to research into networking. The network started out with four nodes. When the first packets were sent, the system crashed and thus began the experiment that evolved into what we know today as the Internet.
It is interesting to note that the World Wide Web (WWW), which is also called the "Web", was developed by Tim Berners-Lee as a separate project to reference networked documents and allow the linking of information from one document to another at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN). "CERN" comes from the French abbreviation of "Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire". The Web is an Internet-based communication service. An excellent explanation regarding the difference between the Internet and the WWW can be found on the CERN Web site.
The Internet and the Web have evolved from organization-specific projects into a global collaborative effort. Successful projects require effective project management, team members invested in a common goal, and a set of standards for everyone to follow. The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) is the organization responsible for the evolution and overall project management of the Internet and the WWW. The standards for the Internet are the responsibility of the Institute for Electronic and Electrical Engineers (IEEE), which oversees the hardware and software that support the Web. Standards for the content found on the Web are the responsibility of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).
The Proper Use of
Because the proper use of
acronym relates to content found on the Web, we should refer to the guidelines as specified by the W3C. According to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 1.0, checkpoint 4.2 instructs us to
Specify the expansion of each abbreviation or acronym in a document where it first occurs.
The next step is to determine if a shortened word or phrase is an abbreviation or an acronym. If we look at the Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) techniques for acronyms and abbreviations, we find an example for marking up
<abbr title="World Wide Web">WWW</abbr>. What is this? It seems to be marked up as
<acronym title="World Wide Web">WWW</acronym>. Oh dear, I seemed to have marked mine incorrectly. Or have I?
If we look at the HTML 4.01 Specification: recommendation 9.2.1 for phrase elements of structured text, we find the following:
ACRONYMelements allow authors to clearly indicate occurrences of abbreviations and acronyms. Western languages make extensive use of acronyms such as "GmbH", "NATO", and "F.B.I.", as well as abbreviations like "M.", "Inc.", "et al.", "etc.". Both Chinese and Japanese use analogous abbreviation mechanisms, wherein a long name is referred to subsequently with a subset of the Han characters from the original occurrence. Marking up these constructs provides useful information to user agents and tools such as spell checkers, speech synthesizers, translation systems and search-engine indexers.
Reading a little further, we find an example for marking up
<acronym title="World Wide Web">WWW</acronym> as
<abbr title="World Wide Web">WWW</abbr>. This creates a bit of a quandary. Which one is correct? Which one should we use? How can we clearly indicate occurrences of abbreviations and acronyms if we clearly have no idea which is which?
In digging a little further, we can see on slide 41 of the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) Web Content Accessibility Curriculum: Copyright 2000 the following examples:
<ACRONYM TITLE="Museum of Fine Arts">MFA</ACRONYM>
<ACRONYM TITLE="Massachusetts Institute of Technology">MIT</ACRONYM>
<ACRONYM TITLE="World Wide Web Consortium">W3C</ACRONYM>
<ABBR TITLE="Massachusetts Avenue">Mass. Ave.</ABBR>
<ABBR TITLE="Memorial Drive">Mem. Dr.</ABBR>
From this slide we might deduce that initialisms are considered acronyms and shortened words are considered abbreviations. This seems pretty clear, but there still seems to be confusion. Maybe people are using different definitions for abbreviation and acronym. This is entirely possible as W3C working groups involve a global collaborative effort.
Abbreviation and Acronym Defined
Merriam-Webster provides the following definition for an abbreviation:
A shortened form of a written word or phrase used in place of the whole <amt is an abbreviation for amount>
Merriam-Webster provides the following definition for an acronym:
A word (as NATO, radar, or snafu) formed from the initial letter or letters of each of the successive parts or major parts of a compound term; also : an abbreviation (as FBI) formed from initial letters : INITIALISM
These definitions appear to match the example as laid out on slide 41 of the WAI Web Content Accessibility Curriculum: Copyright 2000.
Freesearch from Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary © Cambridge University Press 2003 provides the following definition for an abbreviation:
'ITV' is the abbreviation for 'Independent Television'.
Freesearch from Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary © Cambridge University Press 2003 provides the following definition for acronym:
an abbreviation consisting of the first letters of each word in the name of something, pronounced as a word: - AIDS is an acronym for 'Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome'.
Now, we are getting somewhere. We have found a discrepancy between the definitions. This seems to be a sticking point for many developers and is illustrated in the article and discussion list, "HTML is not an acronym...". Debate on this issue has been raging since the 8th of August, 2002 so it is safe to assume the confusion surrounding abbreviation and acronym is not something new.
Maybe there is a difference between American English and British English. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000 as listed on Bartleby.com defines acronym as:
A word formed from the initial letters of a name, such as WAC for Women's Army Corps, or by combining initial letters or parts of a series of words, such as radar for radio detecting and ranging.
Okay, we have an American English definition that agrees with a British English definition so this does not appear to be country-specific.
Maybe the problem lies with Merriam-Webster. I found an old print version of Merriam-Webster from 1994. Acronym is defined as,
a word (as radar) formed from the initial letter or letters of each of the successive parts or major parts of a compound term. It appears the inclusion of "INITIALISM", in Merriam-Webster's current online definition of acronym, adds an element of uncertainty into the mix. Of course, we could just choose to ignore this definition and hope no one will mention it. It might work; although I personally doubt that will be the case.
The new draft of the WCAG might provide some illumination regarding our dilemma. In the HTML WCAG 2.0 Working Draft, we find editorial notes concerning the use of <abbr> and <acronym> and how to distinguish between the two:
Although these have undergone much discussion, there is not yet enough consensus to create solid techniques.
It seems this truly is a complicated issue; one that will not easily be resolved.
Now What Do We Do?
I originally had hoped I would find answers during the process of writing this article. It seems I have failed as I have found only more questions:
- Are all initialisms considered acronyms?
- If not and acronyms are meant to be initialisms that are words, what are the criteria that define an initialism as a "word"? For example: I have marked WCAG using
<abbr>because I spell the letters out, W-C-A-G. I have been told that some people pronounce it "Wurcag". Would this mean it is a word and should be marked as
<acronym>? On the other hand, acronyms are a subset of abbreviations. Maybe we should use
<abbr>to mark up the ones we cannot definitively identify as a word.
- How does Internet Explorer's (IE) current lack of support for
<abbr>impact our resolution of the issue?
- Is there truly a one-size-fits-all solution? There is no single instructional strategy that will effectively address every type of learning. Maybe a single solution will not adequately address the needs of all users.
- What information is available to help us identify the needs of the users?
- How will our decisions impact users now and in the future?
- What do we do until a resolution is in place?
I have a strong feeling that I am not the only person with questions regarding this issue. As comforting as that is, it does not provide any guidance for a current course of action. Obviously, I could choose to do nothing until it all gets sorted out. Personally, I cannot in good conscience ignore the people for whom I design and develop so I will muddle on, continue searching for guidance, and pray my actions do not muck things up too much for the users now and in the future.
As a final note, I chose to recount a brief history of the Internet at the beginning of this article in order to provide a marked up example of content with numerous abbreviations and acronyms. Is this pedantry gone mad, or does it aid the general readability of a document?
- Hobbes' Internet Timeline v8.0: http://www.zakon.org/robert/internet/timeline/
- Archive-name: Hobbes' Internet Timeline
- Version: 8.0
- Archive-location: http://www.zakon.org/robert/internet/timeline/
- Last-updated: 1 January 2005
- Maintainer: Robert H'obbes' Zakon, timeline@Zakon.org, www.Zakon.org
- Description: An Internet timeline highlighting some of the key events and technologies that helped shape the Internet as we know it today.
- World Wide Web Consortium: http://www.w3.org/
- Merriam-Webster: http://www.webster.com/
- Freesearch: http://www.freesearch.co.uk/dictionary
- The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition.© 2000. on Bartleby.com: http://www.bartleby.com/61/
- The Merriam-Webster Dictionary, 1994: ISBN 0-87779-911-3
- HTML Techniques for WCAG 2.0, W3C Working Draft: http://www.w3.org/TR/2004/WD-WCAG20-HTML-TECHS-20041119/