Posted by dorayme on 02/16/06 02:37

In article <11v778ogthfqo6f@news.supernews.com>,
Andrey Tarasevich <andreytarasevich@hotmail.com> wrote:

> dorayme wrote:
> > In article <7ulmpz1ddpsu.dbuxn62faxik.dlg@40tude.net>,
> > "Beauregard T. Shagnasty" <a.nony.mous@example.invalid> wrote:
> >
> >> Marcus Stollsteimer wrote:
> >>
> >> > The point is: all acronyms are abbreviations.
> >>
> >> What word is RADAR an abbreviation for?
> >
> > "radar" is not an acronym.
>
> Radar IS an acronym.

Quite right to give me this blunt retort, no less than I deserve!
I should have added something, of course.

I was thinking it has its origin in an acronym but is now an
ordinary English word. There would be other words that have
passed into English that are no longer what they were. But I am
not an expert in these things. It would not take much to make me
recant. But I would like to see a good argument. Perhaps it both
is and is not, there being a basic uncertainty in these matters,
especially when the word is used without periods, in lower case,
the original expansion of the initialisation mostly forgotten by
even educated folk who know well enough what the word means
without the technical details.

--
dorayme

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