Posted by Jake on 02/16/06 13:25

In message
<doraymeRemoveThis-C4FB08.11374416022006@news-vip.optusnet.com.au>,
dorayme <doraymeRemoveThis@optusnet.com.au> writes
>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.
>
I would suggest that 'RADAR' is an acronym -- and 'radar' isn't.

As you say, 'radar' has now passed into the English language as a word
in it's own right. After all, we now say/write 'fax' and not 'facsimile
machine', 'email' and not 'electronic mail', etc. do we not?

Still, what do I know about these things? ;-)


regards,
--
Jake (jake@gododdin.demon.co.uk -- just a 'spam trap' mail address)

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