Ha! The three letter acronym “ADL” contains the nested three letter acronym “API”?!
I find that amusing, any other examples anyone is aware of?
Just to nitpick myself, they are actually initialisms, not acronyms
GNU stands for GNU’s not UNIX.
Notice anything interesting about the previously mentioned TLA?
Yes, this is what I’ve always understood “CGI” to mean (and as such, it’s a subset of “special effects”).
I would’ve used “computer graphics” to refer to what you see on the screen when you’re using a computer—although that use of the term seems a little retro now that typical computers aren’t as limited in what they can display. “Wow, the PC version of that game has better computer graphics than when I played it on my Atari!”
By the way, don’t forget that any acronym with more than 3 letters is an XTLA. (Extended Three Letter Acronym).
I love jargon.
Some of my professors in grad school were members of something called the LIST. That’s an acronym for “LISA international science team”. LISA, in turn (a proposed gravitational-wave mission) stood for “Laser Interferometry Space Antenna”. And of course, “Laser” is “Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation”.
Aside from the infinite ones like “GNU’s Not Unix”, I’ve never seen a deeper recursive acronym.
Related is the recursive acronym, which seems to be something techies enjoy, for some reason. (GNU has already been mentioned in this thread).
I’m not sure I’d call yours a recursive acronym so much as a nested acronym. Looking it up on Wikipedia, it does seem that nested acronym is a term for this, but also “macronym.”
I disagree with your analysis.
“I just got some money from an ATM” and “I just got some money from an ATM machine” are more or less identical sentences.
“He’s an expert in IBM” and “He’s an expert in IBM machines” are not.
The helicopters I work on have a navigation device known as an EGI. EGI stands for Embedded GPS/INU, which then expands to Embedded Global Positioning System/Inertial Navigation Unit. I guess EGPSINU was a bit of a mouthful.
I think in many cases the redundancy does help, as we don’t parse initialisms and acronyms by their constituent parts. The objection that redundancy is not desirable or even incorrect in language is, in my opinion, misguided. I would argue that in most cases the redundancy aids in immediate comprehension. To me, “ISBN number” is more immediately understandable vs “ISBN.” If you write about BASIC code, you’re really writing about Beginner’s All-Purpose Instruction Code code, which is redundant. Except that I feel it’s silly to object to its redundancy–it’s a completely natural English construct. Nobody parses down BASIC into its individual components, but rather treats it as its own entity. Same with GOP party or HIV virus or VIN number or AC current, etc.
So the fully exploded name would be Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation Interferometry Space Antenna International Science Team, or LASERISAIST.
I’ve been around computers and technology for more than two decades and I’ve only ever heard of computer animation/special effects being referred to as CGI (Computer Generated Imagery). Never heard of CG before this thread.
Also, isn’t “computer graphics” redundant? What other kinds of graphics are there?
Yeah, they had to shorten it when their shoulder patch embroiderers kept having nervous breakdowns.
Certainly not. Any kind of drawing or illustration is “graphics”. “Computer graphics” is that subset of graphics that is made using a computer.
And yet, every graphic artist I know works on a computer. In fact, the main difference between an “artist” and a “graphic artist” is that the latter operate almost exclusively in a digital environment.
It may have been different in the past, but in 2017, “graphics” means computers.
Even in your own text you indicate that many artists currently using computers do not exclusively use them.
And not every graphic artist in the world uses a computer to paint. Yes, that includes some who have access to computers.
Waaay back when you had to say “digital computer” since just “computer” could also mean an analog computer or a human computer (as in Hidden Figures).
While no longer needed, it doesn’t make it wrong to say “digital computer”. Ergo “computer graphics” is still a cromulent term.