P3D What is the abbreviation for abbreviation?

[fj834@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Dr. George A. Themelis)]

I understand your desire to defend your language and find this butchering
(a.k.a. "abbreviation") of words useful and acceptable as normal evolution
of the language, but the fact is that it is not characteristic of other
languages/cultures, it does not have any logic behind it and it leads to
confusion and loss of information.

When I put "stereo" as a keyword for Ebay, I get 300 entries, about half of
which related to stereophonic sound, a subject not of immediate interest to
me. There is no logic in taking a two part word like stereo-scopic (to view
in 3 dimensions) and cutting of one part (to view) to make it shorter.  Why
is it that some long words are abbreviated, while others, equally long or
longer (procrastinate, abbreviate) are not?

If we accept that words are established by common usage then we should
accept words like "stereopticon" because more people say "stereopticon"
than the proper "stereoscope" and we all know what a person means when he
says he collects "stereopticon views".

There is a certain charm and satisfaction in knowing what the word is
coming from and what it really means, like telephone (voice from a
distance),  photography (writing with light), automobile (moving by
itself), synchronize (occur at the same time), microscope (an instrument to
look at small things).  This charm and knowledge is lost when we say TV to
save ourselves a few sounds.

IMO :-) -- George Themelis


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