Three-letter acronym 270906 225128485 2008-07-12T00:54:05Z 206.209.102.128 /* History and origins */ A '''three-letter acronym''', '''three-letter abbreviation''', or '''TLA''' is an [[acronym]], [[abbreviation]], [[alphabetism]] or [[initialism]] consisting of three letters. These are usually the initial letters of words of the phrase abbreviated, and are written in capital letters (upper case): three-letter abbreviations such as "etc." or "Mrs." would not be described as a three-letter acronym. Most three-letter abbreviations are ''[[initialisms]]'' (i.e., all the letters are pronounced as letters, as in [[LSD]]), and very few fit the narrow definition of ''[[acronym]]'' (which requires it to be pronounced as a single word, as in [[DOS]], which is unusual in three-letter abbreviations). See [[acronym and initialism]] for discussion of the difference. Nevertheless, ''three-letter acronym'' is a recognised phrase, often abbreviated to TLA. A series of [[:Category:Lists of TLAs|lists of TLAs]] lists all TLAs which are included in Wikipedia. These lists also include abbreviations comprising two letters followed by a single digit, which are not strictly three-letter acronyms. TLA has the [[recursive]] feature that TLA is its own TLA. ==Examples== <!-- Editors' note: Comprehensive lists of TLAs can be found at [[:Category:Lists of TLAs]]. The following is a list of ILLUSTRATIVE examples. By all means add newcategories and illustrative examples of those new categories. ***************************************************************************************************************** However ***** PLEASE DO NOT ADD ENDLESS LISTS OF EXAMPLES - THAT IS ALREADY COVERED BY [[:Category:Lists of TLAs]]. ***** ***************************************************************************************************************** --> * Countries: '''[[United States of America|USA]]''' and '''[[Commonwealth of Independent States|CIS]]'''. * Politicians: [[John F. Kennedy|'''JFK''']] and [[Lyndon Baines Johnson|'''LBJ''']]. * Computer Terms: '''[[RAM]]''', '''[[CPU]]''' and '''[[DOS]]'''. * Corporations: '''[[IBM]]''' and '''[[NEC]]'''. * '''T'''hree '''L'''etter '''A'''gencies: '''[[CIA]]''', '''[[FBI]]''', '''[[NSA]]''', '''[[SAS]]'''. * [[Television network]]s: '''[[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]]''' (U.S.) and '''[[BBC]]''' (U.K.). * [[Personal advertisement]]s: '''SBM''' for Single Black Male. * Chemistry, biology, pharmaceuticals: '''[[Monosodium glutamate|MSG]]''' and '''[[LSD]]'''. * Clinical medicine: '''[[heart failure|CHF]]''', '''[[coronary artery disease|CAD]]''' * Communications shorthand: '''[[LOL]]''' and '''[[OMG]]'''. * Military and weaponry: [[wiktionary:Appendix:Military_slang#B|'''BFR''']] and [[Rocket propelled grenade|'''RPG''']] * [[List of airports by IATA code|IATA airport codes]]: '''[[SFO]]''' and '''[[LAX]]'''. * Academic testing: '''[[SAT]]''', '''[[ACT (examination)|ACT]]''', and '''[[Graduate Record Examination|GRE]]'''. * Tombstones: '''[[rest in peace|RIP]]''' ''Wikipedia also has [[:Category:Lists of TLAs|an exhaustive list of TLAs]].'' <br> ==History and origins== Three-letter acronyms were used as [[mnemonics]] in biological sciences, and the exact term ''three-letter acronyms'' appeared in the literature in [[1977]]<ref>S. R. Seavey & P. H. Raven (1977) ''Journal of Biogeography'' Vol 4 No 1 page 57</ref>. Their practical advantage was promoted by Weber in [[1982]]<ref>W. A. Weber (1982) ''Taxon'' Vol 31 no 1 "Mnemonic Three-Letter Acronyms for the Families of Vascular Plants"</ref>. They are used in many other fields, but the term TLA is particularly associated with computing<ref>K. D. Nilsen & A. P. Nilsen (1995) ''The English Journal'', Vol 84 No 6 "Literary Metaphors and Other Linguistic Innovations in Computer Language"</ref>. The first known use of the [[self-reference|self-referential]] term "TLA" was by [[Texas Instruments]] Inc. employees in the Industrial Systems Division circa 1982.{{Fact|date=January 2008}} Engineers used to mock the marketing department's tendency to define new products with three-word descriptions, such as "CVU" for a product line called "Control Vision Unit" and "ACM" for "Automation Configuration Module." Due to the seemingly excessive use of three-letter abbreviations or initialisms at the company, the employees started simply to report that they were working on product "TLA" as an ironic self-reference. In [[1988]], eminent computer scientist [[Edsger W. Dijkstra]] wrote "Because no endeavour is respectable these days without a TLA ... "<ref>[http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/EWD/ewd10xx/EWD1036.PDF On the cruelty of really teaching computer science]</ref> By [[1992]] it was in a [[Microsoft]] handbook.<ref>Dan Gookin (1992) ''The Microsoft Guide to Optimizing Windows'' page 211</ref> Use of "TLA" spread through both industry and academia, and it has now become a generally understood initialism.<ref>See [http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/TLA Wiktionary].</ref> For a complete discussion of the various forms of abbreviations, acronyms and other letter substitutions, see ''[[Acronym and initialism]]''. ==Other information== * The number of possible three-letter abbreviations using the 26 letters of the alphabet from A to Z ( AAA, AAB ... to ZZY, ZZZ) is 26 &times; 26 &times; 26 = 17,576. Another 26 &times; 26 &times; 10 = 6760 can be produced if the third element is allowed to be a digit 0-9, giving a total of 24,336. * In [[English language|English]], [[WWW (disambiguation)|WWW]] is the longest possible TLA to pronounce, requiring nine [[syllable]]s. Although in ''written'' English it is an abbreviation, in ''spoken'' English it may use more syllables than that which it is abbreviating.<ref>i.e. dou-ble-u dou-ble-u dou-ble-u = 9 syllables, whereas the most well-known expansion "World wide web", along with most of the entries on [[WWW (disambiguation)]], requires only 3 syllables.</ref> ''See also [[Pronunciation of "www"]].'' * '''YABA''' ("Yet Another Bloody Acroynm") is a related though less-used term. "YABA-compatible" is used to mean that term's acronym can be pronounced but is not an offensive word. (e.g., "When choosing a new name, be sure it is "YABA-compatible.")<ref>K. D. Nilsen & A. P. Nilsen (1995) ''The English Journal'' Vol. 84, No. 6.,"Literary Metaphors and Other Linguistic Innovations in Computer Language"</ref> ==References in popular culture== * As early as 1967, the musical [[Hair (musical)|Hair]] included the song "Initials", whose final verse consisted only of TLAs, viz: "LBJ IRT USA LSD. LSD LBJ FBI CIA. FBI CIA LSD LBJ." * In 1986 Will Shatter of the band [[Flipper (band)|Flipper]] formed a band named "Any Three Initials" (ATI), as a parody of the preponderance of hardcore punk bands with three-initial names. * In 1998 the British band [[Love and Rockets (band)|Love and Rockets]] released their last album, [[Lift (Love and Rockets album)|Lift]], featuring the song "R.I.P. 20 C." that, apart from the refrain, consists only of three-letter abbreviations. A contest was held rewarding the first to correctly give the meanings of all 69 of them. * In 1999 German hip-hop group [[Die Fantastischen Vier]] (The Fantastic Four) released the song "MfG" ("Mit freundlichen Grüßen" - German for "best regards", literally "with friendly regards"), also mainly consisting of TLAs.<ref>[http://german.about.com/library/blmus_fanta4mfg.htm Lyrics of "MfG"]</ref> * In 1999, the author [[Douglas Adams]] remarked: "The World Wide Web is the only thing I know of whose shortened form takes three times longer to say than what it's short for."<ref>Douglas Adams, The Independent on Sunday, 1999</ref> * According to the [[Jargon File]], a journalist once asked hacker [[Paul Boutin (journalist)|Paul Boutin]] what he thought the biggest problem in computing in the 1990s would be. Paul's straight-faced response was, "There are only 17,000 three-letter acronyms." * The [[Jargon File]] also mentions the term "ETLA" for "Extended Three Letter Acronym" to refer to four letter acronyms/abbreviations. Also, "Extended Three Letter Acronym" is sometimes abbreviated to "XTLA". ==See also== * [[:Category:Lists of TLAs]] * [[RAS syndrome]] * [[List of acronyms and initialisms]] * [[List of all two-letter combinations]] * [[List of computing and IT abbreviations]] * [[List of three-letter broadcast callsigns in the United States]] * [[List of airports by IATA code]] * [[List of IOC country codes]] * [[ISO 4217]] (currency code) ==Footnotes== <references /> == External links == * [http://www.abbreviations.com Abbreviations.com] — A directory and search engine for acronyms, initialisms, and other abbreviations. * [http://www.acronymfinder.com Acronymfinder.com] — Resource to find multiple meanings of acronyms, sorted by type. * [http://www.casia.org/TLA/ TLA Wörterbuch] - Casia TLA collection. * [http://www.xs4all.nl/~jtv/gtf/ GTF] - the GPL'ed TLA FAQ. * [http://www.stuartbruce.net/abbrev/ The Great Abbreviations Hunt] - A TLA for every combination of letters. * [http://www.all-acronyms.com All Acronyms Dictionary] — Database of acronyms with thousands of TLAs * [http://www.auctionslanguage.com AuctionSlanguage.com] - A resource to find meanings of acronyms and abbreviations used on auction sites. Includes many TLA's like NWT and HTF. [[Category:Abbreviations]] [[Category:Acronyms| T]] [[da:TLA]] [[de:Dreibuchstabenabkürzung]] [[eo:Listo de 3-literaj kombinaĵoj]] [[fr:Sigles de trois lettres]] [[it:Three-letter acronym]] [[nl:DLA]] [[pl:Skróty trzyliterowe]] [[sl:Tričrkovna kratica]] [[sv:TLA]]