There are several terms to describe different kinds of jargon including anacronym, backronym, weather acronyms, city acronyms, leetspeak and textonyms. The majority of the expressions you see above are not acronyms, but rather shorthand used while text messaging or IMing. The online practice is to refer to shorthand, initialisms, or abbreviations as acronyms. In contrast, shorthand pronunciations are like an initialism (a set of initials) in which you say the letters one-by-one (for example, 'ESP' is an initialism for 'extra sensory perception' whereas 'esp. The difference between acronyms and shorthand is that with acronyms, you pronounce the letters as a new word (for example, 'FUBAR' is pronounced 'foo-bar' and 'RADAR' is pronounced 'ray-dar'). Online enthusiasts are learning that shorthand are in fact called acronyms, but this is incorrect. Commonly thought of as a series of letters that make up a 'word' there is a distinction between acronyms and shorthand. Acronyms, Abbreviations, Shorthand, LeetspeakĪcronyms have always been an integral part of computer culture, and they have since spawned a new language on the Internet.
