Acronyms ?

daltem

I keep seeing people post acronyms for terms on the site and my poor slow brain catches on to some but several leave me clueless .

Please post some and their meaning ( for those of us in the same boat)

Thanks!

brower47

TL;DR - Too long; didn't read
NSV - Non Scale Victory
TOM - Time of the month
BMI - Body Mass Index
BMR - Basal Metabolic Rate

Those are all that are coming to mind at the moment.

Trivia for the day: The only true acronym on that list is "TOM" since it forms another word. The rest are more accurately called initialisms since they are just strings of letters representing a phrase. Just your FYI for the day.

kennethmgreen

Trivia for the day: The only true acronym on that list is "TOM" since it forms another word. The rest are more accurately called initialisms since they are just strings of letters representing a phrase. Just your FYI for the day.

I don't agree with this - the trivia part. I don't think that's a universal definition of an acronym. YMMV.

brower47

Trivia for the day: The only true acronym on that list is "TOM" since it forms another word. The rest are more accurately called initialisms since they are just strings of letters representing a phrase. Just your FYI for the day.

I don't agree with this - the trivia part. I don't think that's a universal definition of an acronym. YMMV.

Agree or don't agree but:

Whilst an abbreviation is the shortened form of any initial, syllable or parts of a phrase or words, an initialism (or less commonly, alphabetism) refers to an abbreviation formed from, and used simply as, a string of initials. Although the term acronym is widely used to refer to any abbreviation formed from initial letters, some dictionaries define acronym to mean "a word" in its original sense, while some others include additional senses attributing to acronym the same meaning as that of initialism. The distinction, when made, hinges on whether the abbreviation is pronounced as a word, or as a string of letters. In such cases, examples found in dictionaries include NATO, scuba, and radar for acronyms, and FBI and HTML for initialism.

deksgrl

MFP= My Fitness Pal
TDEE = Total Daily Energy Expenditure

momzeeee

IF = intermittent fasting

ADF =alternate day intermittent fasting

JUDDD= another name for alternate day intermittent fasting (means Dr. Johnson's Up Day Down Day Diet, coined in the book, The Alternate Day Diet, by Dr. James Johnson).

soldier4242

Trivia for the day: The only true acronym on that list is "TOM" since it forms another word. The rest are more accurately called initialisms since they are just strings of letters representing a phrase. Just your FYI for the day.

I don't agree with this - the trivia part. I don't think that's a universal definition of an acronym. YMMV.

It is a universal definition and I think she did a very good job of pointing out this little fact very respectfully. Lots of people get it wrong but an acronym is word that formed by using the first letter of each word involved. SCUBA is an acronym for example.

The others are called initial-isms for example FBI, CIA, DEA notice that you don't read those as words you just say each letter.

kennethmgreen

Trivia for the day: The only true acronym on that list is "TOM" since it forms another word. The rest are more accurately called initialisms since they are just strings of letters representing a phrase. Just your FYI for the day.

I don't agree with this - the trivia part. I don't think that's a universal definition of an acronym. YMMV.

Agree or don't agree but:

Whilst an abbreviation is the shortened form of any initial, syllable or parts of a phrase or words, an initialism (or less commonly, alphabetism) refers to an abbreviation formed from, and used simply as, a string of initials. Although the term acronym is widely used to refer to any abbreviation formed from initial letters, some dictionaries define acronym to mean "a word" in its original sense, while some others include additional senses attributing to acronym the same meaning as that of initialism. The distinction, when made, hinges on whether the abbreviation is pronounced as a word, or as a string of letters. In such cases, examples found in dictionaries include NATO, scuba, and radar for acronyms, and FBI and HTML for initialism.

What source are you getting your definition from? I ask more out of curiosity than to challenge. When I started looking up acronym, the sources I found had conflicting info. Some agreed with what you originally stated. Others did not. And some defined a true acronym as one where the letters are pronounced - not necessarily forming a true word, but letters that are said as a word. Which, to me, is different than your original definition.

Your follow-up does go into that. However, what happens when you have a string of letters that rarely gets pronounced? A few months ago I made a big deal out of working with a consultant at my current job who insisted on pronouncing URL phonetically as a word (as in "Earl"), and that was only the second person I'd ever met that did that.

To me, that falls into the definition of an acronym. Even though most of the people I've ever met pronunce URL "Yoo Are El" the fact that at least two people pronounce it as a word seems to make URL an acronym. And I have a problem with that. Because I could, just to be contrary, start pronouncing HTML and FBI as words ("Hitimmel" and "Phuhbeye," respectively) - and that would break the rule.

kennethmgreen

Trivia for the day: The only true acronym on that list is "TOM" since it forms another word. The rest are more accurately called initialisms since they are just strings of letters representing a phrase. Just your FYI for the day.

I don't agree with this - the trivia part. I don't think that's a universal definition of an acronym. YMMV.

It is a universal definition and I think she did a very good job of pointing out this little fact very respectfully. Lots of people get it wrong but an acronym is word that formed by using the first letter of each word involved. SCUBA is an acronym for example.

The others are called initial-isms for example FBI, CIA, DEA notice that you don't read those as words you just say each letter.

My definition of "universal" - applied here - would mean that in researching a true acronym, I would find very similar definitions across various sources. That wasn't my experience. Hence, my contention at the use of "universal."

Pandorian

Another MFP user has a great summary with a lot of the commonly used abbreviations you'll see on MFP

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/982207-acronyms-and-terms-for-new-mfp-members-v-5

I believe to be the most current version of the list.

daltem

Trivia for the day: The only true acronym on that list is "TOM" since it forms another word. The rest are more accurately called initialisms since they are just strings of letters representing a phrase. Just your FYI for the day.

Thank you for pointing out my misuse of words- I told ya'll my brain was slow ( and old)!
I also appreciate the link Pandorian posted.

I've learned a lot of new things today!