SydneyEFalk

Since I'm apparently feeling my etymological thinking tonight, I'll go ahead and drop this concept on you:

Acronyms weren't in common use before the 1900s. Like the first reference to the concept in German is from 1921 and in English was 1940.

That's how complicated the world got -- we had to start abbreviating shit into pronounceable shit so we could still verbally chatter about complicated shit in verbal one-word shorthand.

And now we routinely mash old acronyms into new acronyms at times.

Apr 22, 2017 at 2:38amWeb
Show thread8zu🔺Relocated→.socialApr 22, 2017
@sydneyfalk Nice post. I have always yearned for simpler expression for human knowledge.
Show threadJoshua A.C. NewmanApr 22, 2017
Eventually, we'll speak in .zip. @sydneyfalk
Show threadSydneyEFalkApr 22, 2017

@JoshuaACNewman

I still maintain that eventually a subdialect of English will be solely composed of XKCD strip numbers.

(In this case, a sort of meta-example of 1443)

Show threadJoshua A.C. NewmanApr 22, 2017
Ha ha! 1217! @sydneyfalk
Show threadSydneyEFalkApr 22, 2017

@JoshuaACNewman

That's a little 647ing, TBQH. Violence seems unwarranted. :P

Show threadJoshua A.C. NewmanApr 22, 2017
Did you actually choose that one? It's so apropos! @sydneyfalk
Show threadSydneyEFalkApr 22, 2017

@JoshuaACNewman

I actually chose both of the ones I used.

Show threadJoshua A.C. NewmanApr 22, 2017

Man.

You should write a bot.

@sydneyfalk

Show threadSydneyEFalkApr 22, 2017

@JoshuaACNewman

Instead, I write a LOT ha ha ha

(oh sweet merciful fuck why did I decide to be an author)

Show threadJoshua A.C. NewmanApr 22, 2017
Usually these things are, "This, or nothing." @sydneyfalk
Show threadSydneyEFalkApr 22, 2017

@JoshuaACNewman

Is this a response to something else, or am I just that confused at the moment?

Show threadJoshua A.C. NewmanApr 22, 2017

It's why you decided to become an author. Just like I decided why to become...

Wait, what am I?@sydneyfalk

Show threadSydneyEFalkApr 22, 2017

@JoshuaACNewman

Oh! Oh, yeah, I've been writing since I was thirteen. Like, terribly at first, but that's a given.

Took me over two decades to actually get published in any way (and even then it's indiepub, tradpub involves things I can't handle, like more humans and things).

I do other stuff, but I consider writing fiction my 生き甲斐.

Show threadSydneyEFalkApr 22, 2017

@JoshuaACNewman

(and as for your question: I think you're doing more of what I wish I was doing overall, but I haven't been able to push myself to attempt gamedev beyond a barely-started VN I wrote and another idea for a VN I was hashing out, mostly because every concept I have for a game relies on programming skills beyond mine and art skills FAR beyond mine)

Show threadJoshua A.C. NewmanApr 22, 2017
Yeah, that's the reason I encourage even coders to develop analog games: you can throw out a dozen bad analog ideas in the time it takes you to code just one. @sydneyfalk
Show threadJasonApr 22, 2017
@sydneyfalk As a govie contractor, I can confirm acronyms have gotten out of hand.
Show threadDan KApr 22, 2017
@sydneyfalk ROFLOL
Show threadMatthew SkalaApr 22, 2017

@sydneyfalk > the first reference to the concept in German is from 1921

Was that what I'm thinking it might have been?

Show threadDr. Edward Morbius ❌Apr 22, 2017
@sydneyfalk I blame LSD. It's another 1960s disease:
https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=acronym&year_start=1800&year_end=2000&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t1%3B%2Cacronym%3B%2Cc0
Show threadAngosturaApr 22, 2017
@sydneyfalk Anno Domini? I bet we can find some longer Latinate ones that appear in religious texts.
Show threadDavid de Groot 𓆉Apr 22, 2017

@sydneyfalk https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_medieval_abbreviations

Admittedly it needs citations, but I could probably find some.

Show threadSydneyEFalkApr 22, 2017

@dadegroot
@Angostura

* "Common use" was the bar, which is by definition not exactly well-defined. I'm aware of the existence of acronyms in places throughout the period previous to the years indicated -- but they were not what I would call "in common use" during those times.

And to address another item in David's response:

* Abbreviations aren't acronyms. Acronyms are a subset of abbreviations that are pronounceable or intended to be so.

Show threadAngosturaApr 23, 2017
@sydneyfalk @dadegroot indeed. I'd be interested in hearing from any Hebrew scholars though. I very much suspect that there might be a few early examples that count as acronyms lurking in Kabbalah, for example. As for 'common use' - well, I guess you need to have a literate population. Interesting, though.