I love words! That should come as no surprise to you—since I’m writing this article. It humbles me to admit it, but I’ve been wrong about the word “RV” all along.
Not acronyms?
Here’s what I mean: All along I thought “RV” was an acronym for recreational vehicle. Just like USA is an acronym for the United States of America and NHL is the acronym for National Hockey League. Maybe you thought so, too. Turns out, we’re wrong.
Initialism
RV, USA, and NHL are all initialisms. Each initial letter represents (in order) recreational vehicle, United States of America, and National Hockey League. However, when we refer to these three, we say their individual letters. That makes them initialisms.
What’s the difference?
When initials make a word you can pronounce, it’s an acronym. Like NASA. The acronym, NASA, can be pronounced as a word. When talking about the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, we usually say “NASA” rather than N,A,S,A (naming each individual letter).
Acronyms and initialisms challenge
Here are some acronyms and initialisms you might hear or use as you RV. See how many you know and then check the answers.
NASCAR
NRA
NOAA
SUV
KOA
USFS
DIY
ATM
ETA
ASAP
GEICO
LED
YAHOO
Now that you know the difference, how many initialisms were listed? (Remember, in an initialism the letters are pronounced separately.) How many were acronyms? (Acronyms can be pronounced as a word.)
Answers
The explanation for each acronym or initialism is shown in the same order as shown above:
National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing
National Rifle Association
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association
Sport utility vehicle
Kampgrounds of America
United States Forest Service
Do it yourself
Automatic Teller Machine
Estimated time of arrival
As soon as possible
Government Employees Insurance Company
Light-emitting diode
Yet another hierarchical officious oracle
Five of the clues were acronyms. The rest were initialisms. (I know that LED can be pronounced as a word, but in actual conversation, people treat the letters as initialisms.)
Can you come up with additional acronyms or initialisms that folks might encounter while RVing? Share your ideas in the comments below.
##RVT1135
Interesting article, but does anyone really care is a string of letters is an acronym or an initialization? They are both abbreviations for agencies or sayings, etc. , sort of like ROFLMAO!
I find this interesting. Didn’t know YAHOO. Thanks, Gail
I love learning something new. Thanks, Gail
Thank you, Gail! I did not know there were initialisms. While working in DC for the federal government I grew accustomed to almost everything turning into an initialism or acronym. I sometimes said the words just to be contrary. 😉 Something that may be more likely to be an acronym than initialism, but unlikely to be referred to using the words is XXDOT, where XX refers to the state and the balance to “department of transportation.” They are always on the sign telling us that we are driving through road construction. 🙂
PS, I had no idea that Yahoo is an acronym. I use their email service. 🙂
NABISCO stands for National Biscuit Company.
I worked for forty years for IBM (International Business Machines). We always laughed about talking in TLAs (three letter acronyms). Turns out IBM and nearly all the TLAs in our company were initialisms (or TLIs?). Thanks Gail! I enjoyed learning about this.