A tax on grief? Can we change this?

[Thalia]

But my point was that by the actual definition of 'acronym' none of your examples are acronyms because they aren't pronounced as words, like scuba or radar or laser. It's not that I'm trying to call an acronym by another name

[Al]

An abbreviation is where you represent a word using only some of the letters of that word. e.g. Mr for Mister.

Mr for Mister is a contraction. It's not an abbreviation.

[RedCelt69]

But my point was that by the actual definition of 'acronym' none of your examples are acronyms because they aren't pronounced as words, like scuba or radar or laser. It's not that I'm trying to call an acronym by another name

The word "acronym" was created in 1943 by Bell labs. There is no universally accepted definition whereby everyone agrees that acronyms must be pronounceable words. Otherwise, TLA isn't, in and of its own right, a TLA.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acronym_and_initialism

I'm happy to continue working with the common definition I've always known - even if it isn't universally accepted. Yet. It's a new(ish) word. Give it time.

Mr for Mister is a contraction. It's not an abbreviation.

Jesus Fucking Christ. It is both.

Is it national Pedant Week?

[bdw]

One of Britain’s best known “little known facts” is that food manufacturer McVities went to court against Her Majesty’s Customs and Excise in 1991 arguing that Jaffa Cakes were not chocolate covered biscuits (cookies) but miniature cakes; and therefore exempt from VAT. The crux of McVities’ case was that biscuits go hard when stale, whereas cakes (and Jaffa Cakes) go hard. The judge ruled in their favour and Jaffa cakes remain VAT exempt to this day.

See also the Pringles case going through the courts at present. Proctor & Gamble are seeking a ruling that Pringles are not crisps, which would mean that they would be zero-rated for VAT (rather than the standard rating for crisps and products similar to crisps and made from the potato). If they succeed, P&G stands to recover around £100mm from HMRC by way of back taxes.

The tricky bit is that Pringles only contain around 40% potato so the issue turns on whether they fall within the "products similar to crisps and made from the potato" limb of the VAT test.

Wonderfully, the principal area of contention was the "potatoness" of the product, an issue which the court dryly described as "an Aristotelian question". P&G's arguments were eventually rejected on the grounds that "most children,if asked whether jellies with raspberries in them were 'made from' jelly, would have the good sense to say 'Yes', despite the raspberries.".

Interestingly, the humble Pringle Dipper is, by contrast, not treated as a crisp and is therefore zero-rated so expect further advertising drives by P&G for this line and its rice-based snacks instead.

Of course, this is probably going to march on to the House of... oops, Supreme Court, thus proving that even the judiciary system, having popped, is incapable of stopping.

[Al]

Mr for Mister is a contraction. It's not an abbreviation.

Jesus Fucking Christ. It is both.

No, it is not. An abbreviation is the initial letter of a word or is formed from the initial letters of several words. A contraction is formed from the omission of internal letters. Go and buy a decent book on grammar, read it, learn from it.

Is it national Pedant Week?

Ah, the old refuge of the person in the wrong - call someone a pedant in the hope it will conceal the fact that you don't know what you're talking about.

[RedCelt69]

Ah, the old refuge of the person in the wrong - call someone a pedant in the hope it will conceal the fact that you don't know what you're talking about.

If I'd just thrown out the charge of pedantry, you might have a point. I didn't. You don't.

If you shorten anything (not just words) you abbreviate it.

ab⋅bre⋅vi⋅ate
  /əˈbriviˌeɪt/ Show Spelled Pronunciation [uh-bree-vee-eyt] Show IPA verb, -at⋅ed, -at⋅ing.

–verb (used with object)
1. to shorten (a word or phrase) by omitting letters, substituting shorter forms, etc., so that the shortened form can represent the whole word or phrase, as ft. for foot, ab. for about, R.I. for Rhode Island, NW for Northwest, or Xn for Christian.
2. to reduce (anything) in length, duration, etc.; make briefer: to abbreviate a speech.

Contractions, acronyms and initialisms are all forms of abbreviation you insufferable moron.

Go and buy a decent book on grammar, read it, learn from it.

Follow thine own advice. Something to ask Santa for this year.

So, anyway... back to IHT... (Waah! Waah! There shouldn't be an H in IHT! ... and there's no Lb or £ in "pound" get over it, already)

[Gubbins]

Is it national Pedant Week?

Ah, the old refuge of the person in the wrong - call someone a pedant in the hope it will conceal the fact that you don't know what you're talking about.

Yet I feel there is justification for complaining about having a reasoned argument descend for the umpteenth time into baseless irrelevancy. You may as well get it over and done with and mention German modern history while you're at it. It boils down to the same thing - needless obfuscation over a trifling matter of grammar which has nothing to do with the subject at hand.

[DACrowe]

No, it is not. An abbreviation is the initial letter of a word or is formed from the initial letters of several words. A contraction is formed from the omission of internal letters. Go and buy a decent book on grammar, read it, learn from it.

I'm struggling to guess what an 'abbreviated book' would be, were that the case. Confusing, I suppose.

[RedCelt69]

I'm struggling to guess what an 'abbreviated book' would be, were that the case. Confusing, I suppose.

Istgwa'ab'wb, wttc. C, Is.

Fairly confusing.

[exnihilo]

The L and stylised L (£) are from the old name for pound, the Latin librae, so that example's not much cop either.

[LonelyPilgrim]

Why are you all having a row about symbology? Even for The Sinner that's a particularly useless subject to argue about.

IT vs. IHT. Well, IT is already recognised as Information Technology, so it would be confusing to use it for Inheritance Tax. And since the whole point of abbreviation, acronyms, etc etc, or any other use of symbolism is to convey an idea in a condensed form, IT would be bollocks.

IHT gets the point across, it's easy to remember, and if you want a justification how about IHT uses all of the first letters of the emphasised syllables. But at the end of the day all that matters is that it's clear and understandable as a symbol.

[RedCelt69]

The L and stylised L (£) are from the old name for pound, the Latin librae, so that example's not much cop either.

/facepalm

I know that Lb and £ represent the Latin... but (by a similar logic wrt IHT) they are poor representations, considering we say "pound" and not "libre".

An abbreviation (of any kind, be it contraction, acronym, initialism, icon, or thumbnail) is a smaller representation of something bigger. Once you are familiar with what the "something bigger" is, it doesn't matter how closely it matches the smaller representation.

It is a placeholder (Mr UR £ thru IHT), representing the concept (Mister Brown ninjas your money through Inheritance Tax) of something bigger.

Now... are you quite done, reveling in the little picture - or would you like to continue to bang on about the minutiae of irrelevancies?

[exnihilo]

Yeah, cos anything you don't say is irrelevant.

[RedCelt69]

Yeah, cos anything you don't say is irrelevant.

Really? Wow. Go me.