Acronym Pronunciation


lulzfish

lulzfish

Pandora Defense Squad
Joined
Jan 14, 2009
Messages
3,502
Website
troyanonymous.homelinux.com
Fork from http://www.gp32x.de/board/index.php?/topic/52031-anticipate-the-new-video-here/page__st__105

Does anybody read "VGA" (Video Graphics Array) as "vagina"? I think it could work in the right circumstances.
I always say "GUI" as "gooey", it's shorter and I'm bad at mentally writing out words, so it will take me longer to hear "Gee Yew Eye" than to hear "gooey" anyway.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
lulzfish said:
Fork from http://www.gp32x.de/board/index.php?/topic/52031-anticipate-the-new-video-here/page__st__105

Does anybody read "VGA" (Video Graphics Array) as "vagina"? I think it could work in the right circumstances.
I always say "GUI" as "gooey", it's shorter and I'm bad at mentally writing out words, so it will take me longer to hear "Gee Yew Eye" than to hear "gooey" anyway.
Click to expand...
It is a stretch to get "vagina" out of VGA as there is no "n" in VGA :rolleyes:
 
Last edited by a moderator:
daclassicgamingmaster said:
someone just hit puberty
Click to expand...

He might be describing what he uses the ports as, which is a disturbing thought.

MotivatorBrainBleach2.jpg


We need to eventually pull this thread back to the original topic and then merge back in.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Personally, I don't pronounce most of the acronyms as one word only some. I say Gee Yew Eye, but I do pronounce PNG as Ping & JPG as Jay Peg. I just don't like the way a lot of the acronyms sound when pronounced as a word, one of my pet peeves i guess (i also hate that term itself).
 
I say Gee Yew Eye, Vee Gee A, and Pee En Gee, but I do say Jay Peg. I'm trying to think if there are any other exceptions... Sometimes I'll say 'jif' and other times I'll say Gee Eye Ef.

Eh, there's too much thinking involved in this, I give up.
 
jmetal88 said:
I say Gee Yew Eye, Vee Gee A, and Pee En Gee, but I do say Jay Peg. I'm trying to think if there are any other exceptions... Sometimes I'll say 'jif' and other times I'll say Gee Eye Ef.

Eh, there's too much thinking involved in this, I give up.
Click to expand...

I pronounce GIF as 'Gif' like gift with a silent t.

I listed a bunch of acronyms that are commonly said as words in the other thread, but GUI is listed in most dictionaries as having the pronunciation of "gooey" and gui is a Korean dish that's also pronounced "gooey". People will probably know what you mean either way, though.

Aside: I seem to have fixed flash destroying my keyboard while fixing another completely unrelated flash issue (I'm using an alpha plugin!) I'm hopeful that it will take this time.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
G.U.I for sure, I've never heard anyone say 'Gooey'.

I did once hear someone say 'jif' rather than 'gif' though, which I found confusing.

But mostly I don't care.
 
daclassicgamingmaster said:
someone just hit puberty
Click to expand...
Nah, I've been thinking about that pun since like.. maybe 3 years ago.
I don't know.

For "bmp" I always just say "bitmap", does anybody say "bump" or "bimp" or "bee em pee"?
 
Last edited by a moderator:
craigix said:
G.U.I for sure, I've never heard anyone say 'Gooey'.

I did once hear someone say 'jif' rather than 'gif' though, which I found confusing.

But mostly I don't care.
Click to expand...

In America, it's always Gooey, noone ever spells out G-U-I. And back when GIFs were most popular (the 90s) they were alternately pronounced JIFs or GIFs but, like you, I always found JIF confusing and laughable when I heard it. I think mostly, over here at least, GIF is more popular.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
"Acronym Pronunciation"

If you ask me, if it's an acronym, you say it as a word not letters. An acronym is by definition an abbreviation composed of the first letter(s) of words in a phrase that form a pronounceable word. An abbreviation using the first letters in words in a phrase which does not form a word is known as an initialization (or simply an abbreviation.)

Thus, SCUBA and LASER are acronyms, but HTML and FBI are not.

None of this, however, gets us any closer to figuring out if VGA, GUI, etc. are acronym or initializations, and therefore, no closer to how determining how to say them.


Some back up of my pedantic rant: http://searchcio-midmarket.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid183_gci211518,00.html
 
Someone once linked me to incontrovertible proof that gif was always intended to be pronounced "jiff". But I still refuse to accept it.

Acronyms I pronounce as words:

JPG - jaypeg
MPG - empeg
GUI - gooey
DIVX - divvex
I'm sure there are many more. ASCII, BIOS etc.

Acronyms I say as letters:

VGA, AVI, PNG, BMP, most filenames really, PCMCIA :p , again, millions more.

It's funny how you can decide on something like this in your head, and never say it out loud. Then years later you happen to use it in conversation, and everyone thinks you're insane.
 
lulzfish said:
daclassicgamingmaster said:
someone just hit puberty
Click to expand...
Nah, I've been thinking about that pun since like.. maybe 3 years ago.
I don't know.

For "bmp" I always just say "bitmap", does anybody say "bump" or "bimp" or "bee em pee"?
Click to expand...

I say bitmap. In that case, saying B M P is actually longer than saying the actual word >.>

jasay said:
"Acronym Pronunciation"

If you ask me, if it's an acronym, you say it as a word not letters. An acronym is by definition an abbreviation composed of the first letter(s) of words in a phrase that form a pronounceable word. An abbreviation using the first letters in words in a phrase which does not form a word is known as an initialization (or simply an abbreviation.)

Thus, SCUBA and LASER are acronyms, but HTML and FBI are not.

None of this, however, gets us any closer to figuring out if VGA, GUI, etc. are acronym or initializations, and therefore, no closer to how determining how to say them.


Some back up of my pedantic rant: http://searchcio-midmarket.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid183_gci211518,00.html
Click to expand...

The word acronym was coined in 1943 by Bell Laboratories for any word made up of the first letters of a series of words. That means HTML, VGA, GUI, FBI, SCUBA, and LASER are all acronyms. Initialisms are words made up of the first letters of words and the term is mainly used when being needlessly pedantic. Most dictionaries will say initialism and acronym mean the same thing.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Rathum said:
The word acronym was coined in 1943 by Bell Laboratories for any word made up of the first letters of a series of words. That means HTML, VGA, GUI, FBI, SCUBA, and LASER are all acronyms. Initialisms are words made up of the first letters of words and the term is mainly used when being needlessly pedantic. Most dictionaries will say initialism and acronym mean the same thing.
Click to expand...
Yes, I already noted it was pedantic and didn't add much to the discussion. Most dictionaries include non-standard words and definitions so I'm less than surprised. However, all dictionaries I've seen say an acronym is a abbreviation that makes a word whereas an initialism is simply an abbreviation. It's a difference that matter to me as an engineer and a very literal person, but not to most others and I understand that. I personally don't really consider abbreviations like HTML words since there is no way to say them. On the other hand it is a symbol with meaning so it could be considered a word. Either way, enough off-topic discussion. Carry on.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top