375
submitted 10 months ago by thatsTheCatch@lemmy.nz to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

Mine is OOO for Out Of Office. I always misread it in my head like a ghost and it takes me a few seconds to process. It also doesn't translate to speech—you have to say the whole thing.

Interested to see if others have similar acronyms they beef with.

top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[-] Wojwo@lemmy.ml 166 points 10 months ago

Mtg. A lot of posts and articles use it for Marjory Taylor Green an it always confuses me, I keep trying to figure out what Magic the Gathering has to do with Jewish space lasers.

[-] Carighan@lemmy.world 29 points 10 months ago

Yeah same, Magic The Gathering it is.

load more comments (14 replies)
[-] MrVilliam@lemmy.world 147 points 10 months ago

As a kid, I was in the room at one point while my mom was watching some TV show, maybe law and order or something similar. I heard somebody letting somebody else know (verbally) the details of some victim and described the cause of injury or death or whatever as "GSW". I asked my mom what GSW meant. She said "gun shot wound". I said that that couldn't possibly be right, and she was curious why. I said because "gun shot wound" is 3 syllables and "GSW" is 5; it's literally quicker to say the full thing.

So yeah, GSW is fucking stupid when said aloud, and even me as a dumbass child knew that.

[-] Kiwi_Girl 47 points 10 months ago

I guess it's faster to write, so people started to say it as well.

[-] hOrni@lemmy.world 35 points 10 months ago

How often do You have to use the phrase "gun shot wound" in everyday speak? Found the American.

[-] SeedyOne@lemm.ee 33 points 10 months ago

It was specifically in a police TV show, spare us the tried joke.

load more comments (4 replies)
load more comments (41 replies)
[-] CodexArcanum@lemmy.world 138 points 10 months ago

POS I find very funny as I'm often working on Point-of-Sale equipment, and most of it is running Poorly Optimized Software, making the whole thing a Piece of Shit for the users.

[-] SuiXi3D@kbin.social 27 points 10 months ago

Not an acronym though, but an initialism. Acronyms are said like a word, like CRISPR, initialisms aren’t, like ATM.

[-] milo128@lemm.ee 47 points 10 months ago

you're being pointlessly pedantic. Initialisms are also considered acronyms by most defimitions and by common use.

load more comments (2 replies)
load more comments (8 replies)
load more comments (4 replies)
[-] pikasaurX4@lemm.ee 82 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Just to be “that guy” I wanted to say that an acronym is technically an initialism that you pronounce as a word, like SCUBA, LASER, or NASA. If it’s just letters that stand for something, it’s called an initialism. No one cares (not even me), but I had to say it :P

Most acronyms that have a W in them are pointless to say aloud in English. It’s almost always shorter to just say the words. Like WTF, for example. Those are my least favorite

Oh and YMMV. I used to work with car data and we would use YMMB to mean “year/make/model/body” and so I always start reading YMMV wrong and that bugs me

load more comments (9 replies)
[-] ediculous@feddit.nl 80 points 10 months ago

I hate all acronyms that aren't defined.

You see it constantly in gaming communities. Ah, yes, the game "AC." You know the one.

Assassin's Creed? Animal Crossing? Armored Core? Ace Combat?

[-] nixcamic@lemmy.world 25 points 10 months ago

You know tf2? The beloved multiplayer game with great lore that still got hundreds of thousands of players more than a decade after its release even though the devs mostly abandoned it and it got overrun by bots? No, the other one.

load more comments (8 replies)
load more comments (9 replies)
[-] Macaroni_ninja@lemmy.world 63 points 10 months ago

It's infuriating to read all the comments without explanations what said acronym means.

[-] xmunk@sh.itjust.works 32 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

IANAL but you should RTFM because PEBKAC.

(IANAL is my favorite ever acronym because it's funny dammit... I was just looking for an excuse to sneak it in somewhere in this thread. RTFM is a fine acronym but I have such a negative association with it because it's almost exclusively used by assholes. PEBKAC is just an elitist acronym whenever not used ironically.)

[-] tautalas@lemmy.world 29 points 10 months ago

And still this MF (Mother Fucker) doesn't write what any of it stands for.

load more comments (4 replies)
load more comments (18 replies)
load more comments (3 replies)
[-] vodkasolution@feddit.it 52 points 10 months ago

My least favorite is IANAL (no pun intended), my favorite is RTFM, I use it a lot!

BofA is ugly but it's mainly a US thing, no one else uses it.

load more comments (9 replies)
[-] kambusha@feddit.ch 49 points 10 months ago

IWPITTWAWOTAFTTDNKTY (I wish people in this thread would also write out the acronym for those that do not know them yet)

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] PlutoniumAcid@lemmy.world 47 points 10 months ago

Do you remember before we had usb devices, our laptops had credit-card-sized PCMCIA slots?

I love that word. What's it mean? People can't memorise computer industry acronyms. ;-)

load more comments (8 replies)
[-] dQw4w9WgXcQ@lemm.ee 46 points 10 months ago

Norway has a weird obsession with making translated acronyms for well established terms. Lately, after many years of use of "AI", the Language Council decided that the term should be changed to "KI", as that is the "correct" Norwegian acronym. Not only does it feel wrong to say, but it invades another local acronym for me.

To top it of, that council decided to make "KI-generated" the "word of the year", which seems like a pat on their own shoulder to brilliantly making the acronym.

I hate it.

load more comments (9 replies)
[-] anonymouse@sh.itjust.works 45 points 10 months ago

FTW. For years I thought it meant "Fuck The What". Even now that's the first thing that comes to mind and have a hard time remembering the actual meaning.

[-] otter@lemmy.ca 23 points 10 months ago

There's also FTFY, which I thought was a way of throwing offence at the topic and the person that brought it up

load more comments (6 replies)
load more comments (13 replies)
[-] Hylactor@sopuli.xyz 45 points 10 months ago

Ftfy always becomes "fuck that, fuck you" in my head.

load more comments (4 replies)
[-] ofcourse@lemmy.ml 42 points 10 months ago

FMLA. I start reading it as fuck my life before realizing it’s the family and medical leave allowance. So much hinges on that extra A.

[-] rickyrigatoni@lemm.ee 49 points 10 months ago

fuck my life anally

now i've ruined it for you permanently

[-] saigot@lemmy.ca 41 points 10 months ago

I always read ofc as "of fucking course" it makes no sense to include the f.

load more comments (10 replies)
[-] KnowledgeableNip@leminal.space 39 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Had an old colleague who kept abbreviating 'follow up' as 'f/up.'

"Yeah we should be okay, I'll f/up on that later today."

"Hey are you able to f/up on this?"

"Hey, I f/uped with our boss today on our issue."

load more comments (3 replies)
[-] kux@lemm.ee 38 points 10 months ago

SQL when pronounced as sequel. Squall or even squirrel would have been nicer imo

[-] SlopppyEngineer@lemmy.world 55 points 10 months ago

Their original product was called SEQUEL. Structured English Query Language. They got sued by a company called sequel so changed it to SQL, but everybody still calls it sequel.

[-] kux@lemm.ee 28 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

oh cool. my dislike for it was out of ignorance as often the case. thanks for letting me know

load more comments (2 replies)
load more comments (3 replies)
[-] Blackout@kbin.social 37 points 10 months ago

My favorite is GIF cause we all agree how it's pronounced, no confusion there. If you think it's said the other way you are wrong and very stupid.

[-] CodexArcanum@lemmy.world 27 points 10 months ago

Jraphical interchange format

load more comments (4 replies)
load more comments (17 replies)
[-] sylver_dragon@lemmy.world 31 points 10 months ago

I'll pile on an list FOMO (Fear of Missing Out). It's dumb as both a concept and acronym. Though sadly, it's also quite a successful marketing tactic.

load more comments (4 replies)
[-] rickyrigatoni@lemm.ee 30 points 10 months ago

GUI. Stop sounding it out as gooey it makes me uncomfortable.

load more comments (12 replies)
[-] chahk@beehaw.org 29 points 10 months ago

I'm with Norm on this: "ID" is stupid. "I" stands for "i" and "D" stands for "dentification".

load more comments (4 replies)
[-] blanketswithsmallpox@lemmy.world 29 points 10 months ago

ETA, but not the estimated time of arrival that everyone knows.

The ETA that Tumblr and XX chromosomes made popular that actually means Edited to add...

Rather than just Edit: or E:.

But it means I added something!... Right... That's literally the definition of edit... Blood is thicker than the water of the womb too right? Lmfao.

load more comments (10 replies)
[-] Pulptastic@midwest.social 27 points 10 months ago

I'm going to answer the opposite question. My favorite acronym is TLA (three letter acronym)because it mocks the whole system.

I also love OOO specifically because it is ghosty.

load more comments (5 replies)
[-] FerbFletcher@lemmy.ml 27 points 10 months ago

Related, OOP for Out Of Pocket. In software, its Object Oriented Programming. My programming lead uses the first meaning in email frequently

load more comments (3 replies)
[-] GammaGames@beehaw.org 27 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

CAPTCHA is pretty bad, apparently it’s Completely Automated Public Turing-test to tell Computers and Humans Apart

Source: http://www.captcha.net/

Edit: I also dislike www, it’s annoying to say 👎

load more comments (8 replies)
[-] Pratai@lemmy.world 27 points 10 months ago

GOP is shitty one for sure.

load more comments (4 replies)
[-] FireWire400@lemmy.world 27 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

I don't really like it when people use acronyms when talking about music albums, it always takes me far too long to figure out what they actually mean.

Special shoutouts to TDSotM and ItCotCK.

[-] AlexWIWA@lemmy.ml 26 points 10 months ago

MVP. It means two things, both are polar opposites. Absolute bare minium product, or most valuable player / product.

load more comments (10 replies)
[-] BonesOfTheMoon@lemmy.world 26 points 10 months ago

iYKYK. Took me forever to figure out what it means.

load more comments (4 replies)
[-] hackris@lemmy.ml 25 points 10 months ago

WYSIWYG

What You See Is What You Get

  • Used for software such as Microsoft Word, where formatting the text actually changes what you see on the screen
load more comments (8 replies)
[-] RozhkiNozhki@lemmy.world 23 points 10 months ago

IYKYK. Took me forever to memorize, I had to look it up every time I came across it and no way I'll ever say it aloud.

load more comments (6 replies)
[-] ShaggySnacks@lemmy.myserv.one 23 points 10 months ago

NAMBLA. Those chuckle fucks at the North American Man/Boy Love Association really made it difficult for us members of the North American Marlon Brando Look-Alikes.

load more comments (5 replies)
load more comments
view more: next ›
this post was submitted on 07 Jan 2024
375 points (100.0% liked)

Asklemmy

43791 readers
733 users here now

A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions

Search asklemmy 🔍

If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!

  1. Open-ended question
  2. Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
  3. Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
  4. Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
  5. An actual topic of discussion

Looking for support?

Looking for a community?

~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_A@discuss.tchncs.de~

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS