Andy AlderwickMay 16

TIL why (in British English) we don't use a dot after the “St” short form of “Street”.

The “t” in “St” is *not* the second letter of “Street”, but the sixth. So it's not an abbreviation (like “Prof.” for “Professor”, “etc.” in “et cetera”, etc.), it's a contraction (like “Dr” in “Doctor”, “Mr” in “Mister”, “St” in “Saint” and so on) and contractions don't have a dot.

🤯

I assumed it was just a weird English thing, but turns out I found the only language feature that's entirely consistent 

Show threadperryMay 19
@alderwick I think it's the other way round in India. My college name has St. Thomas in it, and haven't noticed anyone using a dot after etc or Prof
Show threadAndy AlderwickMay 19
@libreinator Wow, thank you for posting! I know at lot of branches of English have different rules, but I didn't expect one to choose the opposite in every case 
Show threadperry
@alderwick This doesn’t apply to initials in names though. In names with more than one initials, Baby Boomers and Gen X people (at least in my district) use a dot between the initials but not after the last initial, like Foo A.B or A.B.C Bar. AFAIK this is less common among GenZ, who use Foo AB or ABC Bar, and sometimes A.B.C. Bar (no spaces after initials). Foo A. B. or A. B. C. Bar are rare in my place.
May 25 at 5:20amWeb