Now, more than ever, our language is full of abbreviations. From texting to talking, they save time and space and streamline our communications … in most cases. Then there are the cases that leave us looking at a string of letters without a clue how to pronounce them or what they mean. Some abbreviations are obvious, as they’ve been in our vernacular for a while. …
The faster we move, the more abbreviations and acronyms we use, and when it comes to talking about the folks who reside at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue—otherwise known as the White House—there are plenty of acronyms to choose from. The White House has always been home to POTUS (President of the United States). As we have yet to have a female or gay president, if the …
Schools are ground zero for alphabet soup—educators seemingly love to name things using acronyms. STEM, GPA, KWL. While all of this jargon can seem kind of daunting, it’s not too bad once you learn the ropes. And we are here to help. So, get out your pencil and notebook, raise your hand for roll call, and prepare for School Acronyms 101. STEM You may think …
Are you a cruciverbalist? A lover of crosswords? If you can immediately recite a long list of obscure words with an excessive amount of vowels, you’re probably an avid crossword solver. And, this set of vocabulary that is full of words more likely to fill in your morning crossword puzzle rather than your everyday conversation is commonly known as crosswordese. Crosswordese words are used by …
Many people might be surprised to learn that the word taser is an acronym. The (debatable) non-lethal weapon that causes temporary paralysis was invented in the 1970s by a man named Jack Cover (who worked for NASA at one point). Cover aimed to create a non-lethal weapon that could be used in situations in which firing a real gun would prove fatal, like in an airplane hijacking. …
Wherever we go on the internet, we encounter CAPTCHAs, those twisted words that block or enable entries on websites. Need to post an ad on Craigslist or log into your email from a new device? You may meet a CAPTCHA. Want to comment on an article or blog post? CAPTCHA. So, why do we have them? How do CAPTCHAs work? CAPTCHAs were invented to block …
Most of us take our keyboards for granted. If we’re touch typists, we automatically position our fingers above the same eight keys and our muscle memory takes over. We just type! What does QWERTY mean? But our keyboards have an interesting history. Most English language keyboards have a QWERTY layout. And QWERTY isn’t an acronym or neologism. The name is simply the first six characters in …
