this post was submitted on 23 Dec 2023
-17 points (25.7% liked)

Today I Learned

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Why not "NINAA"? Because then it would be an acronym.

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[–] LordOfTheChia@lemmy.world 7 points 8 months ago (2 children)

It's not the "Node(.js) Package Manager"?

[–] Aatube@kbin.social 4 points 8 months ago

https://archive.today/http://npmjs.org/

Apparently, it used to stand for that until some time in 2013

[–] 9point6@lemmy.world 2 points 8 months ago

According to the tweet, no.

[–] thisbenzingring@lemmy.sdf.org 6 points 8 months ago (1 children)

TWAIN is still my favorite

Technology without an interesting name

[–] rikudou@lemmings.world 4 points 8 months ago (2 children)

YAML is also good - yet another markup language.

[–] 9point6@lemmy.world 5 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Fun fact, "Yet another X" is one of the oldest software engineering memes: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yet_another

[–] Marsupial@quokk.au 2 points 8 months ago

Now I want YAWYSIWYG

[–] Aatube@kbin.social 3 points 8 months ago

There are a lot of "Yet another" acronyms out there

[–] DrBob@lemmy.ca 4 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

PINE: Pine Is Not Elm.

At the time I was told this is a recursive acronym.

[–] darkmarx@lemmy.world 4 points 8 months ago (1 children)

I'm pretty sure NPM is Node Package Manager.

XNA, Microsoft's C# based game dev framework, stood for XNA is Not Acronymed.

[–] Aatube@kbin.social 2 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Problem is, XNA is an acronym since it is correctly initialized and can be pronounced

[–] acockworkorange@mander.xyz 0 points 8 months ago (2 children)
[–] XTL@sopuli.xyz 1 points 8 months ago
[–] Aatube@kbin.social 1 points 8 months ago (1 children)
[–] acockworkorange@mander.xyz 1 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

Gesundheit. I'll take your word for it.

[–] ericisshort@lemmy.world 1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

You could just say “Ex-En-Ay” without it ceasing to be an acronym.

[–] Aatube@kbin.social 1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

AFAIK acronyms are initialisms that are pronounceable

[–] ericisshort@lemmy.world 1 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

You’re right that it is an initialism, but you’ve got the inclusivity backwards. Initialisms are acronyms that are not pronounceable, but they are still acronyms whether or not they are pronounced. You did get me questioning my own memory, so I looked it up to double check:

From Wikipedia:

Sometimes, initialism or alphabetism is used to refer to acronyms formed from the string of initials which are usually pronounced as individual letters, as in the FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation).

[–] Aatube@kbin.social 2 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

Hmm. Well, Wikipedia's editors seem to think the opposite. We need reliable sources to sort this out now!

[–] ericisshort@lemmy.world 1 points 8 months ago

*Some of Wikipedia’s editors.

If it were all of them, then the main wiki entry for acronym would not be allowed to stay the way it is. The main article I linked even speaks to the fact that some users of “initialism” think that it is separate from acronyms, so there is definitely still some significant debate. And to add to it, I looked up the words in the three most popular dictionaries:

  • Oxford dictionary lists both initialisms and pronounceable abbreviations as two separate definitions of acronym, so according to them, all initialisms are a form of acronym, matching my inclusivity.

  • Cambridge dictionary has acronym and initialism listed as unconnected entities with separate definitions that do not mention one another, so there is no confirmation of inclusivity either way there.

  • Merriam-Webster dictionary defines initialism as any first letter abbreviation, acknowledges the debate, and claims that initialism is the older word, but it also says that pronounceable initialisms are commonly referred to as acronyms, so their definition more lines up better to your inclusivity rather than mine.

So it seems like possibly one or both of us is right or neither of us is. Isn’t the ambiguity of the English language fun?

[–] PlasticPigeon@lemmy.world 1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Random question, this post has -18 downvotes, but nothing in the comments suggests a negative post. Is it a glitch? Been seeing a few posts today with high negative votes and no real reason.

(Using Voyager on Lemmy.World)

[–] Aatube@kbin.social 2 points 8 months ago

I have no idea. I see 13 upvotes on kbin, but then again kbin doesn’t federate downvotes, and I see the score as -16 on lemmy.sdf.org . What I do know is that Lemmy has been plaguing quite a bit of things lately.

[–] scorpious@lemmy.world 1 points 8 months ago

Gnu’s Not Linux!

[–] slazer2au@lemmy.world 1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Just wait till you find out what PHP and ATI stand for.

[–] vikingtons@lemmy.world 4 points 8 months ago

ATI on its own was 'array technologies incorporated', though to your point, they became known as 'ATI technologies incporporated' later on, which is big sus.

[–] skbo@lu.skbo.net 0 points 8 months ago

npm stands for "Let’s be shitty about everything, including our naming"