# Is "homo" an acceptable abbreviation for anything anymore? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 20, 2013, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-homo-an-acceptable-abbreviation-for-anything-anymore/650854 "2013-02-20T03:19:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2013, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-homo-an-acceptable-abbreviation-for-anything-anymore/650854/1 "2013-02-20T03:19:13Z")
I’m writing what is in effect a 3D math library. In linear algebra, there’s a notion of a “homogeneous” vector or matrix, where in a nutshell (and for reasons I won’t go into) the space is treated as if it were one dimension bigger than it really is. So I have functions to generate a plain rotation matrix, and a homogeneous one. Since, “homogeneous” is a bit tedious to write out every time you want to call the function, I was going to shorten it to “homo” and prefix the homogeneous functions with it. I ended up erring on the side of “homog” for now, not because _I_ think it’s offensive, I think context is important. I’m just worried somebody will make a huge issue where there is none. My friend said he’d be unable to take the library seriously if a function had a “Homo” prefix which I found a little juvenile to be honest. But what say the Dope? Would “homo” be fine in this, or a similar context (i.e. Chemistry), or is “homo” completely poisoned as a slur against homosexuals by now? We’ll ignore “Homo Sapiens” (Erectus, Habilus, etc) since there’s no real way of getting around that one – especially since it’s not really an “abbreviation”. Poll forthcoming ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2013, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-homo-an-acceptable-abbreviation-for-anything-anymore/650854/2 "2013-02-20T03:22:55Z")
I think they’re still selling homo milk in Canada. ---
**Author:** ![drewtwo99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d07c76/32.png) [@drewtwo99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewtwo99)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2013, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-homo-an-acceptable-abbreviation-for-anything-anymore/650854/3 "2013-02-20T03:26:36Z")
Some functions are just such homos! I say go for it. You ain’t gonna offend me or any other reasonable gay person. ---
**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2013, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-homo-an-acceptable-abbreviation-for-anything-anymore/650854/4 "2013-02-20T03:26:38Z")
> [@Jragon](#): > > Habilus Habilis, I know. Sorry. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2013, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-homo-an-acceptable-abbreviation-for-anything-anymore/650854/5 "2013-02-20T04:01:52Z")
If you’re a bro, it’s okay to say “You kinda have nice eyes. No homo.” The offense does not lie in the term, the offensive part is being a bro in the first place. If you say “ecce homo,” you’re having a religious experience, not waxing Nixonian about those “icky homos.” And of course, that means _man_ in Latin, whereas homo(sexual) means _same_ in Greek. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2013, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-homo-an-acceptable-abbreviation-for-anything-anymore/650854/6 "2013-02-20T04:06:14Z")
> [@Beware\_of\_Doug](#): > > I think they’re still selling homo milk in Canada. I’m not even going to tell you the image that brings up. ---
**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2013, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-homo-an-acceptable-abbreviation-for-anything-anymore/650854/7 "2013-02-20T04:09:35Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > I’m not even going to tell you the image that brings up. All I know is that if I try to imagine what you’re imagining, I start seeing flashes of Slug Signorino art and reflexively turn off the image before it develops fully. ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2013, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-homo-an-acceptable-abbreviation-for-anything-anymore/650854/8 "2013-02-20T04:09:36Z")
I’d say just call it gay, and let people figure _that_ out. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2013, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-homo-an-acceptable-abbreviation-for-anything-anymore/650854/9 "2013-02-20T04:38:38Z")
> [@Beware\_of\_Doug](#): > > I think they’re still selling homo milk in Canada. True. When referring to dairy products, “homo” is completely acceptable. ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2013, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-homo-an-acceptable-abbreviation-for-anything-anymore/650854/10 "2013-02-20T04:47:13Z")
Seems fine to me. As long as no one is going to have to explain the code to a classroom full of High School students, I can’t see where it’d be a problem. (Maybe its just because I don’t hang around with 12-year-olds anymore, but using “homo” as a pejorative seems kinda passe: like “rad” or “groovy”. I have a vague impression slang has moved on to new and exciting words to question others masculinity.) ---
**Author:** ![Nikki9doors](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c77e96/32.png) [@Nikki9doors](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nikki9doors)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2013, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-homo-an-acceptable-abbreviation-for-anything-anymore/650854/11 "2013-02-20T05:04:07Z")
> [@Beware\_of\_Doug](#): > > I think they’re still selling homo milk in Canada. Yes they still sell homo milk in Canada ---
**Author:** ![nion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c5a1d2/32.png) [@nion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nion)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2013, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-homo-an-acceptable-abbreviation-for-anything-anymore/650854/12 "2013-02-20T05:07:50Z")
Fun story time! In my teen years, I had a friend that worked at a Dunkin Donuts. The milk cooler had whole milk labeled as “homo milk”. One particular day I was visiting him, I noticed that shelf was empty. After some careful thought, I turned to my friend and, in the presence of customers, loudly informed him that “There no mo’ homo milk, mofo!” A shining moment from my childhood. ---
**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2013, 5:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-homo-an-acceptable-abbreviation-for-anything-anymore/650854/13 "2013-02-20T05:39:37Z")
> [@Simplicio](#): > > Seems fine to me. As long as no one is going to have to explain the code to a classroom full of High School students, I can’t see where it’d be a problem. This seems like a necessary comic to go with this statement: > **[Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal - Wargh](http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?db=comics&id=1169#comic)** > > Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal - Wargh > [@](#): > > (Maybe its just because I don’t hang around with 12-year-olds anymore, but using “homo” as a pejorative seems kinda passe: like “rad” or “groovy”. I have a vague impression slang has moved on to new and exciting words to question others masculinity.) I don’t know, this whole “no homo” thing seems to be pretty popular with the college kids right now. I’m not sure in that phrase it’s quiiiiiite **pejorative** , but I wouldn’t call it a dead word. ---
**Author:** ![JWT\_Kottekoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/3ec8ea/32.png) [@JWT\_Kottekoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JWT_Kottekoe)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2013, 6:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-homo-an-acceptable-abbreviation-for-anything-anymore/650854/14 "2013-02-20T06:03:35Z")
It’s a perfectly acceptable acronym in chemistry, meaning highest occupied molecular orbital. There’s even a HOMO/LUMO Wikipedia entry. ---
**Author:** ![asterion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4da419/32.png) [@asterion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asterion)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2013, 11:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-homo-an-acceptable-abbreviation-for-anything-anymore/650854/15 "2013-02-20T11:25:28Z")
Though it is funny to hear students giggle in class when the topic of the day involves “excited HOMOs”. ---
**Author:** ![FrankJBN](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f0a364/32.png) [@FrankJBN](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FrankJBN)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2013, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-homo-an-acceptable-abbreviation-for-anything-anymore/650854/16 "2013-02-20T17:40:14Z")
You are writing a technical document dealing with mathemeatics and you find it tedious to write out one of the technical terms? In text, it would be unacceptable to abbreviate the word homogenous. In an illustration, “homo.” with a period to indicate that it is an abbreviation might be deemed acceptable. Tedious to write out the word. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2013, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-homo-an-acceptable-abbreviation-for-anything-anymore/650854/17 "2013-02-20T17:54:36Z")
> [@Jragon](#): > > Habilis, I know. Sorry. _Homo habilis_. No capital letter and italicized, if you please. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2013, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-homo-an-acceptable-abbreviation-for-anything-anymore/650854/18 "2013-02-20T17:59:09Z")
> [@FrankJBN](#): > > You are writing a technical document dealing with mathemeatics and you find it tedious to write out one of the technical terms? > > In text, it would be unacceptable to abbreviate the word homogenous. > > In an illustration, “homo.” with a period to indicate that it is an abbreviation might be deemed acceptable. > > Tedious to write out the word. I’m not writing a technical document, I’m writing a library, which is a set of programming functions. In the **documentation** (comments) for the program “homogeneous” is written out every time just fine. Abbreviations are common in programming libraries because programmers often need to call the same function many, many times within a single program and would like to save on keystrokes. In fact, most 3D math libraries I’ve seen don’t even bother to spell out “Vector” and “Matrix” like I did, most just opt for “vec” and “mat”, so mine is already more longwinded than most. ---
**Author:** ![brainstall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/35a633/32.png) [@brainstall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brainstall)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2013, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-homo-an-acceptable-abbreviation-for-anything-anymore/650854/19 "2013-02-20T18:02:19Z")
Maybe you could just abbreviate it to hom., then. ---
**Author:** ![FloatyGimpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/floatygimpy/32/7750_2.png) [@FloatyGimpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FloatyGimpy)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2013, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-homo-an-acceptable-abbreviation-for-anything-anymore/650854/20 "2013-02-20T18:08:24Z")
> [@Beware\_of\_Doug](#): > > I think they’re still selling homo milk in Canada. Don’t forget, our homo milk comes in bags! [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-homo-an-acceptable-abbreviation-for-anything-anymore/650854.md?page=2)