History of abbreviation

Abbreviations have a long history. They were created to avoid spelling out whole words. This might be done to save time and space (given that many inscriptions were carved in stone) and also to provide secrecy. In both Greece and Rome the reduction of words to single letters was common.

When did abbreviations start?

In English, the first known acronyms (as opposed to plain old initialisms) cropped up in the telegraphic code developed by Walter P. Phillips for the United Press Association in 1879.

What is the word origin of abbreviation?

Either from Middle English abbreviaten, from Latin abbreviātus, perfect passive participle of abbreviō (“to shorten”), formed from ad + breviō (“shorten”), from brevis (“short”) or back-formation from abbreviation.

What meant by abbreviation?

An abbreviation is a shortened form of a written word or phrase. Abbreviations may be used to save space and time, to avoid repetition of long words and phrases, or simply to conform to conventional usage.

Why do abbreviations exist?

Abbreviations and acronyms are shortened forms of word (s) or phrases (s). They assist in making manuscripts easy to read and understand. Additionally, they help in meeting the strict word-count targets, avoiding the repetition of words, thereby making the text easy to read.

Is NASA an acronym or abbreviation?

NASA. Full Name: National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

What is the longest abbreviation ever?

The longest acronym is NIIOMTPLABOPARMBETZHELBETRABSBOMONIMONKONOTDTEKHSTROMONT with 56 letters (54 in Cyrillic) in the Concise Dictionary of Soviet Terminology, Institutions and Abbreviations (1969), meaning: the laboratory for reinforcement, concrete and ferroconcrete operations, for composite-monolithic and ...

Is KFC an acronym or abbreviation?

KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken) is an American fast food restaurant chain headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky, that specializes in fried chicken. It is the world's second-largest restaurant chain (as measured by sales) after McDonald's, with 22,621 locations globally in 150 countries as of December 2019.

What are the basic rules of abbreviation?

Abbreviations and acronyms are used to save space and to avoid distracting the reader. Acronyms that abbreviate three or more words are usually written without periods (exception is U.S.S.R.). Abbreviations should only be used if the organization or term appears two or more times in the text.

What are abbreviation examples?

Abbreviation is the process of shortening something, usually a word or phrase, or the shortened version itself. “Mr.” is the abbreviation of “mister,” NASA is the abbreviation of National Aeronautics and Space Administration, etc. (hey, that's an abbreviation too).

What is abbreviate example?

As stated above, e.g. is short for “for example.” The easiest way to remember this one is that it starts with an “e” and so does “example.” Here's how to use for example (e.g.) in a sentence: “There are many types of trees (e.g., spruce, oak, maple) in the study area.”

How was 2000 abbreviate?

The year 2000 is sometimes abbreviated as "Y2K" (the "Y" stands for "year", and the "K" stands for "kilo" which means "thousand"). The year 2000 was the subject of Y2K concerns, which were fears that computers would not shift from 1999 to 2000 correctly.

How do you abbreviate 1000 years ago?

The abbreviation kyr means "thousand years". kyr was formerly common in some English language works, especially in geology and astronomy, for the unit of 1,000 years or millennium.

How do you abbreviate 1940s?

The 1940s (pronounced "nineteen-forties" and commonly abbreviated as "the '40s" or "the Forties") was a decade that began on January 1, 1940, and ended on December 31, 1949.

Why did text abbreviations start?

Texting abbreviations initially started because SMS messages were limited to 160 characters. Texters had to conserve their character counts and started looking for ways to limit the amount of text they put in every message.

Why is 1000 abbreviated to k?

K comes from the Greek word kilo which means a thousand. The Greeks would likewise show million as M, short for Mega. So if we stay consistent with the Greek abbreviations, then billion would be shown as a letter G (Giga). Think of your computer expressing bytes of memory as kilobyte, megabyte, or gigabyte.

Is 2022 abbreviated 22?

Using an Apostrophe to Abbreviate Years

Say you want to shorten the year 2022 in a sentence. Instead of writing 2022, you can abbreviate the year as '22, using an apostrophe in place of the 20.

How do you abbreviate 80's?

Abbreviating decades

(" '80s" is abbreviated from "1980s" and so is usually written with the apostrophe, but I think some style guides prefer to avoid the apostrophe altogether. Note that this is different from the incorrect usage "1980's", which is correct only if you're saying "belonging to 1980" or "1980 is".)

How is 1million abbreviated?

In finance and accounting, MM (or lowercase “mm”) denotes that the units of figures presented are in millions. The Latin numeral M denotes thousands. Thus, MM is the same as writing “M multiplied by M,” which is equal to “1,000 times 1,000”, which equals 1,000,000 (one million).

How do you abbreviate 2 years?

The abbreviation for year is yr. Including the dot. This abbreviation can mean both year and years, so you could use it in the following ways: 1yr., 2yr. They would be pronounced one year, two years, respectively.

How do you abbreviate the 70's?

“The 70's are my favorite decade.” or “The '70s are my favorite decade.” If you guessed the latter, you are correct. The apostrophe in '70s is forming a contraction for the numbers you are replacing in the spelled out version “1970s.” Never put the apostrophe before the “s” when describing decades.