A three-letter acronym, three-letter abbreviation, or TLA is an acronym, abbreviation, alphabetism or initialism consisting of three letters. Acronyms, initialisms, and alphabetisms are Abbreviations that are formed using the initial components in a phrase or name For the HTML tag see HTML element. An abbreviation (from Latin brevis "short" Acronyms, initialisms, and alphabetisms are Abbreviations that are formed using the initial components in a phrase or name Acronyms, initialisms, and alphabetisms are Abbreviations that are formed using the initial components in a phrase or name These are usually the initial letters of words of the phrase abbreviated, and are written in capital letters (upper case): three-letter abbreviations such as "etc. " or "Mrs. " would not be described as a three-letter acronym.

Most three-letter abbreviations are initialisms (i. Acronyms, initialisms, and alphabetisms are Abbreviations that are formed using the initial components in a phrase or name e. , all the letters are pronounced as letters, as in LSD), and very few fit the narrow definition of acronym (which requires it to be pronounced as a single word, as in DOS, which is unusual in three-letter abbreviations). Acronyms, initialisms, and alphabetisms are Abbreviations that are formed using the initial components in a phrase or name DOS, short for "Disk Operating System" is a shorthand term for several closely related Operating systems that dominated the IBM PC compatible market See acronym and initialism for discussion of the difference. Acronyms, initialisms, and alphabetisms are Abbreviations that are formed using the initial components in a phrase or name

Nevertheless, three-letter acronym is a recognised phrase, often abbreviated to TLA. A series of lists of TLAs lists all TLAs which are included in Wikipedia. These lists also include abbreviations comprising two letters followed by a single digit, which are not strictly three-letter acronyms.

TLA has the recursive feature that TLA is its own TLA.

Contents 1 Examples 2 History and origins 3 Other information 4 References in popular culture 5 See also 6 Footnotes 7 External links

Examples

• Countries: USA and CIS. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the
• Politicians: JFK and LBJ. John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy (May 29 1917&ndashNovember 22 1963 often referred to by his initials JFK, was the thirty-fifth President of
• Corporations: IBM and NEC. International Business Machines Corporation abbreviated IBM and nicknamed "Big Blue", is a multinational Computer Technology is a Japanese multinational IT company headquartered in Minato Tokyo, Japan.
• Three Letter Agencies: CIA, FBI, NSA, SAS. near as long as it used to be several months ago It has been actively summarized and split into sub-articles and there is a dynamic talk page discussion of all The National Security Agency/ Central Security Service ( NSA/CSS) is a cryptologic intelligence agency of the United States government
• Television networks: ABC (U. A television network is a distribution network for Television content whereby a central operation provides programming for many Television stations The American Broadcasting Company ( ABC) is an American Television network. S. ) and BBC (U. K. ).
• Personal advertisements: SBM for Single Black Male.
• Chemistry, biology, pharmaceuticals: MSG and LSD. Monosodium glutamate, also known as sodium glutamate and MSG, is a Sodium salt of the non-essential Amino acid Glutamic acid
• Communications shorthand: LOL and OMG. LOL (also written with some or all letters lowercase most commonly as lol or LoL) is a common element of Internet slang used historically
• Military and weaponry: BFR and RPG
• IATA airport codes: SFO and LAX. RPG or rocket-propelled grenade, is a loose term describing hand-held shoulder-launched Anti-tank weapons capable of firing an unguided The complete list is too large for one article This article is a navigation aid to access the lists that contain the data San Francisco International Airport is a major international Airport located south of downtown San Francisco, California, United States adjacent to the Los Angeles International Airport is the primary Airport serving Los Angeles, California, the second-most populated metropolitan area of
• Computer Terms: BSD and DOS. DOS, short for "Disk Operating System" is a shorthand term for several closely related Operating systems that dominated the IBM PC compatible market
• Academic testing: SAT, ACT, and GRE. The SAT Reasoning Test (formerly Scholastic Aptitude Test and Scholastic Assessment Test) is a standardized test for College admissions in the The ACT is a standardized achievement Examination for college admissions in the United States produced by ACT Inc Graduate Record Examination or GRE is a commercially-run Standardized test that is an admissions requirement for many Graduate schools principally in the
• Tombstones: RIP

Wikipedia also has an exhaustive list of TLAs. The phrase " rest in peace " typically occurs on Headstones, often abbreviated "RIP

History and origins

Three-letter acronyms were used as mnemonics in biological sciences, and the exact term three-letter acronyms appeared in the literature in 1977^[1]. A mnemonic device (nəˈmɒnɪk is a Memory aid Commonly met mnemonics are often verbal something such as a very short poem or a special word used to help a person remember Also 1977 (album by Ash. Year 1977 ( MCMLXXVII) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link displays Their practical advantage was promoted by Weber in 1982^[2]. Year 1982 ( MCMLXXXII) was a Common year starting on Friday (link displays the 1982 Gregorian calendar) They are used in many other fields, but the term TLA is particularly associated with computing^[3].

The first known use of the self-referential term "TLA" was by Texas Instruments Inc. Self-reference is a phenomenon in natural or Formal languages consisting of a sentence or Formula referring to itself directly or Texas Instruments ( better known in the electronics industry (and popularly as TI, is an American company based in Dallas, Texas, USA employees in the Industrial Systems Division circa 1984. Engineers used to mock the marketing department's tendency to define new products with three-word descriptions, such as "CVU" for a product line called "Control Vision Unit" and "ACM" for "Automation Configuration Module. " Due to the seemingly excessive use of three-letter abbreviations or initialisms at the company, the employees started simply to report that they were working on product "TLA" as an ironic self-reference.

In 1988, eminent computer scientist Edsger W. Dijkstra wrote "Because no endeavour is respectable these days without a TLA . Year 1988 ( MCMLXXXVIII) was a Leap year starting on Friday (link displays 1988 Gregorian calendar) Edsger Wybe Dijkstra ( May 11, 1930 &ndash August 6, 2002; ˈɛtsxər ˈwibə ˈdɛɪkstra was a Dutch computer scientist . . "^[4] By 1992 it was in a Microsoft handbook. Year 1992 ( MCMXCII) was a Leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display full 1992 Gregorian calendar) Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational Computer technology Corporation, which rose to dominate the Home computer ^[5]

Use of "TLA" spread through both industry and academia, and it has now become a generally understood initialism. ^[6] For a complete discussion of the various forms of abbreviations, acronyms and other letter substitutions, see Acronym and initialism. Acronyms, initialisms, and alphabetisms are Abbreviations that are formed using the initial components in a phrase or name

Other information

• The number of possible three-letter abbreviations using the 26 letters of the alphabet from A to Z ( AAA, AAB . . . to ZZY, ZZZ) is 26 × 26 × 26 = 17,576. Another 26 × 26 × 10 = 6760 can be produced if the third element is allowed to be a digit 0-9, giving a total of 24,336.
• In English, WWW is the longest possible TLA to pronounce, requiring nine syllables. English is a West Germanic language originating in England and is the First language for most people in the United Kingdom, the United States A syllable ( Greek:) is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds Although in written English it is an abbreviation, in spoken English it may use more syllables than that which it is abbreviating. ^[7] See also Pronunciation of "www". WWW (or www) is an initialism for World Wide Web, most often styled in lowercase because it often appears as the leftmost component of Domain names
• YABA ("Yet Another Bloody Acroynm") is a related though less-used term. "YABA-compatible" is used to mean that term's acronym can be pronounced but is not an offensive word. (e. g. , "When choosing a new name, be sure it is "YABA-compatible. ")^[8]

References in popular culture

• As early as 1967, the musical Hair included the song "Initials", whose final verse consisted only of TLAs, viz: "LBJ IRT USA LSD. Hair The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical is a Rock musical with a book and lyrics by James Rado and Gerome Ragni and music by Galt LSD LBJ FBI CIA. FBI CIA LSD LBJ. "
• In 1986 Will Shatter of the band Flipper formed a band named "Any Three Initials" (ATI), as a parody of the preponderance of hardcore punk bands with three-initial names. Flipper is an influential punk band formed in San Francisco, California in 1979 continuing in often erratic fashion until the mid-1990s then reuniting
• In 1998 the British band Love and Rockets released their last album, Lift, featuring the song "R. Love and Rockets are an Alternative rock band formed in 1985 by former Bauhaus members Daniel Ash ( Guitars Saxophone, and vocals Lift is the seventh and final Album by the British band Love and Rockets, released in 1998 on Red Ant. I. P. 20 C. " that, apart from the refrain, consists only of three-letter abbreviations. A contest was held rewarding the first to correctly give the meanings of all 69 of them.
• In 1999 German hip-hop group Die Fantastischen Vier (The Fantastic Four) released the song "MfG" ("Mit freundlichen Grüßen" - German for "best regards", literally "with friendly regards"), also mainly consisting of TLAs. Die Fantastischen Vier fanˌtastɪʃən ˈfiːɐ̯}} also known as Fanta 4 is a German hip hop group from Stuttgart, Germany. ^[9]
• In 1999, the author Douglas Adams remarked: "The World Wide Web is the only thing I know of whose shortened form takes three times longer to say than what it's short for. Douglas Noël Adams (11 March 1952 &ndash 11 May 2001 was an English author comic Radio dramatist "^[10]
• According to the Jargon File, a journalist once asked hacker Paul Boutin what he thought the biggest problem in computing in the 1990s would be. The Jargon File is a Glossary of hacker Slang. The original Jargon File was a collection of hacker slang from technical cultures such as the MIT AI Paul Boutin (born 1961 in Lewiston Maine, United States) is a Magazine writer and editor who writes about Technology in a Pop-culture Paul's straight-faced response was, "There are only 17,000 three-letter acronyms. "
• The Jargon File also mentions the term "ETLA" for "Extended Three Letter Acronym" to refer to four letter acronyms/abbreviations. The Jargon File is a Glossary of hacker Slang. The original Jargon File was a collection of hacker slang from technical cultures such as the MIT AI Also, "Extended Three Letter Acronym" is sometimes abbreviated to "XTLA".

See also

• Category:Lists of TLAs
• RAS syndrome
• List of acronyms and initialisms
• List of all two-letter combinations
• List of computing and IT abbreviations
• List of three-letter broadcast callsigns in the United States
• List of airports by IATA code
• List of IOC country codes
• ISO 4217 (currency code)

Footnotes

1. ^ S. RAS syndrome stands for "Redundant Acronym Syndrome syndrome" and refers to the use of one of the words that make up an Initialism or Acronym as well as 0–9 1 = Onekama Michigan 2D - (i Two- dimensional 25D - (p "Two-and-a-half-dee" This is a list of computing and IT abbreviations. 0–9 / — Slashdot 1GL — First - This is a list of three-letter broadcast callsigns in the United States The complete list is too large for one article This article is a navigation aid to access the lists that contain the data The International Olympic Committee ( IOC) uses Three letter acronym country codes to refer to each group of athletes that participate in the Olympic ISO 4217 is the International standard describing three-letter codes (also known as the currency code) to define the names of currencies established R. Seavey & P. H. Raven (1977) Journal of Biogeography Vol 4 No 1 page 57
2. ^ W. A. Weber (1982) Taxon Vol 31 no 1 "Mnemonic Three-Letter Acronyms for the Families of Vascular Plants"
3. ^ K. D. Nilsen & A. P. Nilsen (1995) The English Journal, Vol 84 No 6 "Literary Metaphors and Other Linguistic Innovations in Computer Language"
4. ^ On the cruelty of really teaching computer science
5. ^ Dan Gookin (1992) The Microsoft Guide to Optimizing Windows page 211
6. ^ See Wiktionary.
7. ^ i. e. dou-ble-u dou-ble-u dou-ble-u = 9 syllables, whereas the most well-known expansion "World wide web", along with most of the entries on WWW (disambiguation), requires only 3 syllables.
8. ^ K. D. Nilsen & A. P. Nilsen (1995) The English Journal Vol. 84, No. 6. ,"Literary Metaphors and Other Linguistic Innovations in Computer Language"
9. ^ Lyrics of "MfG"
10. ^ Douglas Adams, The Independent on Sunday, 1999

External links

• Abbreviations.com — A directory and search engine for acronyms, initialisms, and other abbreviations.
• Acronymfinder.com — Resource to find multiple meanings of acronyms, sorted by type.
• TLA Wörterbuch - Casia TLA collection.
• GTF - the GPL'ed TLA FAQ.
• The Great Abbreviations Hunt - A TLA for every combination of letters.
• AuctionSlanguage.com - A resource to find meanings of acronyms and abbreviations used on auction sites. Includes many TLA's like NWT and HTF.

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