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An acronym is an abbreviation used as a word which is formed from the initial components in a phrase or a word. Usually these components are individual letters (as in ''NATO'' or ''laser'') or parts of words or names (as in ''Benelux''). There are broad currents of consensus but no universal standardization of various names for such abbreviations and of their orthographic styling. In English and most other languages, such abbreviations historically had limited use, but they became much more common in the 20th century. Acronyms are a type of word formation process, and they are viewed as a subtype of blending. ==Nomenclature== Whereas an abbreviation may be any type of shortened form, such as words with the middle omitted (for example, ''Rd'' for ''road'' or ''Dr'' for ''Doctor''), an acronym is a word formed from the first letter or first few letters of each word in a phrase (such as ''sonar'', created from ''sound navigation and ranging''). Attestations for ''ドイツ語:Akronym'' in German are known from 1921, and for ''acronym'' in English from 1940.〔 Paris Gazette, by Lion Feuchtwanger; translated (from Exil) by Willa and Edwin Muir, New York, Viking Press, 1940. Chapter 47, Beasts of Prey, pp. 665–66: His first glance at the _Paris German News_ told Wiesener that this new paper was nothing like the old _P.G._. "They can call it the _P.G.N._ if they like", he thought, "but that's the only difference. Pee-gee-enn; what's the word for words like that, made out of initials? My memory is beginning to fail me. Just the other day there was a technical expression I couldn't remember. I must be growing old. "_P.G._ or _P.G.N._, it's six of one and half a dozen of the other.... Pee-gee-enn. It's an acronym, that's what it is. That's what they call words made up of initials. So I remember it after all; that's at least something. For "Akronym" used in 1921 or 1922, giving an example of "Agfa" film: Brockhaus Handbuch des Wissens in vier Bänden. Leipzig, F. A. Brockhaus, (c1921-23 ) v. 1, p. 37.〕 Although the word ''acronym'' is often used to refer to any abbreviation formed from initial letters,〔 Merriam-Webster, Inc. ''Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of English Usage'', 1994. ISBN 0-87779-132-5. pp. 21–22: 〕 many dictionaries and usage commentators define ''acronym'' to mean an abbreviation that is pronounced as a word,〔 "acronym". ''The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Current English'' (1991), Oxford University Press. p. 12: "a word, usu() pronounced as such, formed from the initial letters of other words (e.g. ''Ernie'', ''laser'', ''Nato'')". 〕〔 "acronym" ("Cambridge Dictionary of American English" ), accessed Oct 5, 2008: "a word created from the first letters of each word in a series of words."〕〔 "acronym" ("The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language" ), accessed Aug 13, 2015: "1. A word formed by combining the initial letters of a multipart name, such as NATO from North Atlantic Treaty Organization or by combining the initial letters or parts of a series of words, such as radar from radio detecting and ranging. 2. ''Usage Problem'' An initialism. Usage Note: In strict usage, the term acronym refers to a word made from the initial letters or parts of other words, such as sonar from so(und) na(vigation and) r(anging). The distinguishing feature of an acronym is that it is pronounced as if it were a single word, in the manner of NATO and NASA. Acronyms are often distinguished from initialisms like FBI and NIH, whose individual letters are pronounced as separate syllables. While observing this distinction has some virtue in precision, it may be lost on many people, for whom the term acronym refers to both kinds of abbreviations."〕〔 "acronym" ("Collins Dictionaries" ), accessed Aug 13, 2015: "a pronounceable name made up of a series of initial letters or parts of words; for example, UNESCO for the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization" 〕〔 "acronym" ("Cambridge Dictionaries Online" ), accessed Aug 13, 2015: "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'." 〕〔 "acronym" ("Cambridge Dictionaries Online" ), accessed Aug 13, 2015: "Acronyms are words which are formed from the first letters of other words, and which are pronounced as full words." 〕〔 "acronym" ("Wordsmyth, the Priemier Educational Dictionary-Thesaurus" ), accessed Aug 13, 2015: "a type of abbreviation used as a word, formed by combining the initial letters (or initial parts) of words that make up a particular string. The pronunciation of an acronym is based on the typical rules of pronouncing words in a language and is not made up of the sounds of the names of individual letters. NASA is an acronym for 'National Aeronautics and Space Administration.' The abbreviations 'FBI' and 'DVD' are not acronyms, but 'AIDS,' 'FICA,' and 'PIN' are." 〕〔 "acronym" ("NetLingo, the Internet Dictionary" ), accessed Aug 13, 2015: "Derived from the first letters of a phrase, acronyms are meant to make the phrase easier to say and remember. With an acronym, the first letter of each word makes up a new word that is, in fact, pronounceable (for example, SNAFU is pronounced "sna-foo" and WOMBAT is pronounced "wahm-bat")." 〕〔 "acronym". ''Medical Dictionary for the Health Professions and Nursing'' (2012).'' Stedman. "A pronounceable word formed from the initial letters of each word or selected words in a phrase (e.g., AIDS)". 〕〔 "acronym" ("Rane Pro Audio Reference" ), accessed Aug 13, 2015: "A word formed from the first letters of a name, such as laser for light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation, or by combining initial letters or parts of a series of words, such as radar for radio detecting and ranging. The requirement of forming a word is what distinguishes an acronym from an abbreviation (or initialism as it is also called). Thus modem () is an acronym, and AES (Engineering Society ) is an abbreviation or initialism." 〕〔 "The Correct Use of Acronyms and Initialisms" ("Scribendi Proofreading Services" ), accessed Aug 13, 2015: "An acronym is a word formed from the initial letters of a name or phrase. It is pronounced as if it were a word. Examples of common acronyms include "SARS" (severe acute respiratory syndrome) and "UNICEF" (United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund)" 〕〔 "The Difference Between an Acronym and an Initialism" ("Today I Found Out" ), accessed Aug 13, 2015: "An acronym is a word formed from the initial letters of a name or phrase. It is pronounced as if it were a word. Examples of common acronyms include "SARS" (severe acute respiratory syndrome) and "UNICEF" (United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund)" 〕〔 Crystal, David (1995). "Abbreviation". ''The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language'', Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-55985-5. p. 120: Under the heading "Types of Abbreviation", this article separately lists initialisms and acronyms, describing the latter as "Initialisms pronounced as single words", but adds, "However, some linguists do not recognize a sharp distinction between acronyms and initialisms, but use the former term for both."〕〔 "The 10 Most Misunderstood Terms in IT" ("TechTarget" ), accessed Aug 13, 2015: "An acronym is not any abbreviation, just one that forms a "sayable" word. Apart from that confusion, acronyms and other abbreviations cause confusion any time a reader is likely not to know what the spelled-out version is." 〕〔 "initialism" ("Online Etymology Dictionary" ), accessed Aug 13, 2015: "initialism (n.) word formed from the first letters of other words or a phrase, 1957, from initial (n.) + -ism. The distinction from acronym is not universally agreed-upon; in general, words such as NATO, where the letters form a word, are regarded as acronyms, those such as FBI, where the letters sound as letters, are initialisms. The use of acronym in entries in this dictionary that are technically initialisms is a deliberate error, because many people only know to search for all such words under 'acronym.'" 〕 in contradistinction to an initialism (or alphabetism)—an abbreviation formed from a string of initials (and possibly pronounced as individual letters). Some dictionaries include additional senses equating ''acronym'' with ''initialism''.〔 "acronym." (''Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary'' ), accessed May 2, 2006: "a word (as NATO, radar, or laser) 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: see ''initialism'' "〕〔 "acronym". ''Webster's New Universal Unabridged Dictionary'' (2003), Barnes & Noble. ISBN 0-7607-4975-2: "1. a word created from the first letter or letters of each word in a series of words or a phrase. 2. a set of initials representing a name, organization, or the like, with each letter pronounced separately, as ''FBI'' for ''Federal Bureau of Investigation''."〕〔 "Usage Note: ... Acronyms are often distinguished from initialisms like ''FBI'' and ''NIH'', whose individual letters are pronounced as separate syllables. While observing this distinction has some virtue in precision, it may be lost on many people, for whom the term acronym refers to both kinds of abbreviations.〕 The distinction, when made, hinges on whether the abbreviation is pronounced as a word or as a string of individual letters. Examples in reference works that make the distinction include ''NATO'' , ''scuba'' , and ''radar'' for acronyms, and ''FBI'' , ''CRT'' , and ''HTML'' for initialisms.〔〔〔 "acronym" ''Oxford English Dictionary''. Ed. J.A. Simpson and E.S.C. Weiner. 2nd ed. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989. OED Online Oxford University Press. Accessed May 2, 2006.〕〔(CRT | Definition of CRT by Merriam-Webster )〕 The rest of this article uses ''acronym'' for both types of abbreviation. There is no rule on what to call abbreviations whose pronunciation involves the combination of letter names and words, such as ''JPEG'' and ''MS-DOS'' . There is also some disagreement as to what to call abbreviations that some speakers pronounce as letters and others pronounce as a word. For example, the terms ''URL'' and ''IRA'' can be pronounced as individual letters: and , respectively; or as a single word: and , respectively. The spelled-out form of an acronym or initialism (that is, what it stands for) is called its ''expansion''. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Acronym」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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