# PWUA (People Who Use Acronyms) and terms they assume people will know (spoiler: they don't) **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [August 21, 2019, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pwua-people-who-use-acronyms-and-terms-they-assume-people-will-know-spoiler-they-dont/839030 "2019-08-21T23:32:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Hatchie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hatchie/32/3983_2.png) [@Hatchie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hatchie)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2019, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pwua-people-who-use-acronyms-and-terms-they-assume-people-will-know-spoiler-they-dont/839030/81 "2019-08-25T18:56:18Z")
> [@Procrustus](#): > > That’s what happened to BECU. Used to be the Boeing Employees Credit Union. It’s not restricted to Boeing employees anymore, so the name is just BECU now. BP (the company) insists “BP” no longer stands for British Petroleum, since it is no longer wholly British owned. They made a big show of pointing this out in 2010, after the big, not-wholly British Petroleum spill in the Gulf of Mexico. ---
**Author:** ![Filbert](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/filbert/32/3433_2.png) [@Filbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Filbert)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2019, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pwua-people-who-use-acronyms-and-terms-they-assume-people-will-know-spoiler-they-dont/839030/82 "2019-08-25T19:12:46Z")
> [@AHunter3](#): > > For some reason acronyms call to the gutter portion of my mind. I interact with people who occasionally refer to a type of therapy as CBT. > > their mind: cognitive behavioral therapy > my filthy mind: cock and ball torture It also stands for Compulsory Basic Training in the UK- a certificate for motorbike riders saying you’re OK to ride on the road with L plates. I… never have the same momentary dirty confusion. Honest guv. ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2019, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pwua-people-who-use-acronyms-and-terms-they-assume-people-will-know-spoiler-they-dont/839030/83 "2019-08-25T21:14:22Z")
> [@MrAtoz](#): > > In at least one case, I don’t have a choice. > > One professional organization that I belong to has a name that was once an acronym, but now is not. They decided that the full name behind the acronym no longer accurately described what the organization had evolved into. But they wanted to keep the acronym, for purposes of branding and familiarity. > > Several committees tried very hard to come up with a new name that still worked out to the same acronym, but failed. So it was simply declared that the acronym is now the official name of the organization, and the letters do not stand for anything (although it is still spelled in all caps–branding again–so it looks like an acronym). > > It’s kind of annoying when I have to apply for funding to travel to their annual conference. We’re required to spell out the full name of all organizations on our travel forms, no abbreviations or acronyms. Every year I have to explain, “There is no fuller name. The letters don’t stand for anything.” Kinda like SAP and SAS. ---
**Author:** ![Railer13](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/railer13/32/9742_2.png) [@Railer13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Railer13)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2019, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pwua-people-who-use-acronyms-and-terms-they-assume-people-will-know-spoiler-they-dont/839030/84 "2019-08-26T02:49:30Z")
> [@Anny\_Middon](#): > > A few years ago, I was in a group of neighbors when one asked what projects I was working on. (I was self-employed as a consultant.) I said I was doing a big project for the IT department of a major university. None of the 3 knew what IT stood for. Yeah, I forgot that the same thing used to happen to me fairly regularly. I finally learned to say that I worked in the computer support department. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2019, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pwua-people-who-use-acronyms-and-terms-they-assume-people-will-know-spoiler-they-dont/839030/85 "2019-08-26T03:04:59Z")
> [@AHunter3](#): > > For some reason acronyms call to the gutter portion of my mind. I interact with people who occasionally refer to a type of therapy as CBT. > > their mind: cognitive behavioral therapy > my filthy mind: cock and ball torture > [@Filbert](#): > > It also stands for Compulsory Basic Training in the UK- a certificate for motorbike riders saying you’re OK to ride on the road with L plates. It can also mean “Computer Based Training”, which was what we called the interactive training videos new employees had to watch when I worked at Jack in the Box. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2019, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pwua-people-who-use-acronyms-and-terms-they-assume-people-will-know-spoiler-they-dont/839030/86 "2019-08-26T03:38:14Z")
> [@Monty](#): > > Not only that, but the constitution requires them to have a “republican form of government” (Constitution for the United States of America, Article IV, Section 4). Commonwealths can be a republic. The Commonwealth of England was an example, 1649 to 1660. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2019, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pwua-people-who-use-acronyms-and-terms-they-assume-people-will-know-spoiler-they-dont/839030/87 "2019-08-26T15:23:12Z")
Next time I have to sit through a 3 hour meeting “brought to you by the FAA” (Fuckin’ Academic Acronyms), I’m going to channel my inner **AHunter3** and turn each one into a double entendre that’ll tickle my Not Quite Out Of Third Grade sense of humor. I know just the woman I’ll sit next to. She’ll love them, and canNOT keep a straight face. Oh, and I remember as a kid addressing letters with three or four letter state “abbrevs”: Chicago, ILL; Elkhart, IND; Hershey, PENN (Not PENNA). ALA was Alabama, ARK was Arkansas, but we never shortened ALASKA… ---
**Author:** ![Patch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a183cd/32.png) [@Patch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patch)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2019, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pwua-people-who-use-acronyms-and-terms-they-assume-people-will-know-spoiler-they-dont/839030/88 "2019-08-26T15:32:52Z")
[Adrian Cronauer]Excuse me, but if the VP is such a VIP, shouldn’t we put the PC on the QT because if it leaks to the VC he could become an MIA and then we’d all be put on KP.[/Adrian Cronauer] ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2019, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pwua-people-who-use-acronyms-and-terms-they-assume-people-will-know-spoiler-they-dont/839030/89 "2019-08-26T19:54:25Z")
> [@StarvingButStrong](#): > > Sorry, I wasn’t as clear as I should have been. I was nitpicking over the idea we had a STATE abbreviation when we’re a Commonwealth. (I’m a Masshole, not a Rhody.) Okay, and here’s a thing that bugs me as much as unexplained acronyms and initialisms: Dopers who talk about “here” without specifying where they live, and who don’t have their location in their profile, as shown in the top right of every post. We can’t read your mind, **Starving**! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2019, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pwua-people-who-use-acronyms-and-terms-they-assume-people-will-know-spoiler-they-dont/839030/90 "2019-08-26T20:01:53Z")
> [@cochrane](#): > > Anyway, the current two-letter abbreviations for the states came into use in 1963. It’s not like they’re brand new and have seldom been encountered before. People have had 56 years to get adjusted to them. How many abbreviations of subnational entities outside the United States have you learned? You’ve had your entire life to learn them. The audience here might be heavily American, but a good many of the regular posters are not American and have no reason to learn U.S. postal abbreviations, whether they were instituted in 1963 or 2013. U.S.-based news media are also on the path away from state name abbreviations. As of 2014, for example, the Associated Press spells out state names in the body of stories (with limited exceptions, e.g., tabular material) in both domestic and international copy. ---
**Author:** ![Morgyn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morgyn/32/3041_2.png) [@Morgyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgyn)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2019, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pwua-people-who-use-acronyms-and-terms-they-assume-people-will-know-spoiler-they-dont/839030/91 "2019-08-29T02:28:05Z")
I’m still trying to figure out what ASAIR stands for. Dinsdale [used it](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=21826884&postcount=34) in this thread [about what do you do when someone parks their car in your driveway](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=881036), and I’m just not getting it from context. I even asked in thread. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2019, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pwua-people-who-use-acronyms-and-terms-they-assume-people-will-know-spoiler-they-dont/839030/92 "2019-08-29T02:40:15Z")
Every remotely ambiguous acronym should be defined on first usage, especially in mixed company. That’s only courtesy. ---
**Author:** ![Eva\_Luna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e495f1/32.png) [@Eva\_Luna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eva_Luna)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2019, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pwua-people-who-use-acronyms-and-terms-they-assume-people-will-know-spoiler-they-dont/839030/93 "2019-08-29T02:44:53Z")
> [@Railer13](#): > > I used to deal with IT vendors on a regular basis. Every one of them would use acronyms when we were meeting with them. It finally got to the point where I had to open a meeting with a proclamation that nobody would use acronyms during the upcoming meeting. They learned rather quickly that they needed to follow that rule. IT folks are the bane of my existence. I do a lot of work visa petitions for them. To be successful with a visa petition, the government employee adjudicating it has to believe that the beneficiary has the skillset required to do the job, among other things. I am not an IT person, and the adjudicator isn’t either, so if I can’t understand what the job encompasses, how can I convince anyone that the beneficiary of the petition has the skillset needed to do it? I did a petition last week for which the job description contained 42 employer-specific acronyms, only 16 of which were defined or even spelled out anywhere. I have literally started developing a glossary of terms for this particular employer so I don’t go insane the next time I have to draft a petition for one of their employees. **Eva Luna,** Immigration Paralegal ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2019, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pwua-people-who-use-acronyms-and-terms-they-assume-people-will-know-spoiler-they-dont/839030/94 "2019-08-29T02:57:29Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > Every remotely ambiguous acronym should be defined on first usage, especially in mixed company. That’s only courtesy. If I use an abbreviation in writing when I’m not corresponding with other IT folks that I know are familiar with my terms, I’ll spell out the term on first usage and put the abbreviation next to it. Something like, “I recommend we purchase a Solid State Drive (SSD) because even though it’s more expensive and has less storage space, an SSD will greatly improve system performance.” It’s not hard to do and can save you problems later, either having to follow up with an explanation of what you meant, or dealing with the consequences of a misunderstanding. ---
**Author:** ![StarvingButStrong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/starvingbutstrong/32/335_2.png) [@StarvingButStrong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StarvingButStrong)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2019, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pwua-people-who-use-acronyms-and-terms-they-assume-people-will-know-spoiler-they-dont/839030/95 "2019-08-29T03:10:34Z")
> [@Morgyn](#): > > I’m still trying to figure out what ASAIR stands for. I puzzled over that one, too. The closest I could come up with was AFAIR (As Far As I Recall) S for Sure instead, maybe? ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2019, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pwua-people-who-use-acronyms-and-terms-they-assume-people-will-know-spoiler-they-dont/839030/96 "2019-08-29T03:16:24Z")
As Soon As It’s Ready? That’s the first thing that popped in my head. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2019, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pwua-people-who-use-acronyms-and-terms-they-assume-people-will-know-spoiler-they-dont/839030/97 "2019-08-29T03:30:32Z")
> [@StarvingButStrong](#): > > I puzzled over that one, too. The closest I could come up with was AFAIR (As Far As I Recall) S for Sure instead, maybe? Well, see, the thread was about an abandoned car that showed up in his driveway, and you know where those usually come from. Yeah, the whole thing was… _“As Skokie As I Remember”_. > [@Atamasama](#): > > I’ll spell out the term on first usage and put the abbreviation next to it. A grateful nation is saluting you, hope you can feel it! ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2019, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pwua-people-who-use-acronyms-and-terms-they-assume-people-will-know-spoiler-they-dont/839030/98 "2019-08-29T12:35:57Z")
Seems to me like there are two sets of using abbreviations and acronyms: those who do it in order to signify some in-group status; and those who honestly believe that in the room they are in the abbreviations communicate clearly to the overwhelming majority of the readers. The former clearly deserve Pitting. The latter? Not so much so. One does not need to spell out all the words to FBI or CIA or USA. In the room of a message board one can write LOL and IMHO. On these fora one can refer to whether a thread should be in GD or GQ with an expectation of being understood. In an elections thread the meaning of PA and WI are clear. Now some honestly misjudge the room or the context sometimes. It is sometimes surprising that the shorthand you thought everyone uses and knows is actually not known by people outside your usual bubble. Yeah, reasonable to err with spelling it out at least on first usage. But begrudging shorthand PA in a thread about elections? That’s absurd for that room. ---
**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2019, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pwua-people-who-use-acronyms-and-terms-they-assume-people-will-know-spoiler-they-dont/839030/99 "2019-08-29T16:03:21Z")
Like cliches popular internet acronyms survive because people find them useful to convey meaning efficiently. I read tweets using TIL a bunch of times before I bothered looking the meaning up, but once I did it became perfectly understandable why it was created and why it persists. Ditto SMH, which I actually took to mean “So much hate”, but is convenient short hand for “Shaking my head.” It’s important though to realize that a well established acronym isn’t unpacked into the words it stands for and then read, it’s a word in and of itself. You might have to think “discombobulate? oh, like bewilder” the first few times you encounter that word, but eventually you just know the real meaning of discombobulate. Most users of ASAP (which can be pronunciated a-sap or spelled out depending on the emphasis you want to place on it) aren’t using it interchangeably with “as soon as possible”. HTH ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2019, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pwua-people-who-use-acronyms-and-terms-they-assume-people-will-know-spoiler-they-dont/839030/100 "2019-08-29T17:25:39Z")
> [@naita](#): > > Ditto SMH, which I actually took to mean “So much hate”, but is convenient short hand for “Shaking my head.” I always thought it was “Smack my head.” :smack: [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pwua-people-who-use-acronyms-and-terms-they-assume-people-will-know-spoiler-they-dont/839030.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pwua-people-who-use-acronyms-and-terms-they-assume-people-will-know-spoiler-they-dont/839030.md?page=6)