| Summary: The American Heritage Abbreviations Dictionary is the quintessential abbreviations dictionary. An abbreviations dictionary can help you to both decipher and use abbreviations and acronyms at work, as a consumer, and even dealing with the online lingo of today. |
We live in an abbreviated society. Abbreviations permeate our lives like insects, finding their way into all the nooks and crannies of written and spoken language. Often, abbreviations come into being because they are truly useful, like the shortening of “North Atlantic Treaty Organization” to NATO. Other times, abbreviations are necessary in order to make the best use of limited space, as when entering names and addresses into databases with fixed-length fields. Sometimes, abbreviations come into being as part of societal subculture. Visitors to computer chat rooms who see the abbreviations “brb,” “ttyl,” or “ty” quickly learn that these abbreviations respectively mean “be right back,” “talk to you later,” and “thank you.”
At some point, though, the sheer volume of abbreviations becomes cumbersome, and a need arises for some kind of reference work on the subject. Enter the American Heritage Abbreviations Dictionary, Third Edition, an inexpensive pocket guide to the shortened forms of American English. The AHD Abbreviations Dictionary offers over 20,000 entries in a book less than an inch thick, covering the following categories: acronyms (scuba: self-contained underwater breathing apparatus), blends (napalm: naphthene + palmitate), clippings (pecs: pectoral muscles), defined terms (ABC’s: the basics), foreign terms (et. al.: “and others”), initialisms (NATO: North Atlantic Treaty Organization), mnemonic devices (PEMDAS: mathematical order of operations), numericals (L8R: later), phonetic initialisms (IC: “I see”), respellings (warez: software), symbols (Pb: chemical symbol for lead), truncations (abbrev: abbreviation), three-letter airport codes (DEN: Denver International Airport), colleges and universities (USC: University of Southern California), sports terminology (ERA: earned run average), Internet Chat Room terminology (FWIW: for what it’s worth), three-letter currency abbreviations (JPY: Japanese yen), vehicular country identification codes (GB: Great Britain), constellations (Dra: Draco) and new American government abbreviations (OHS: Office of Homeland Security).
While the dictionary is useful for looking up various abbreviations, it must be noted that this dictionary does not offer definitions or notes on usage. In other words, if a person watching the Discovery Channel hears the abbreviation “IHAS” and looks it up, she will find that it means “idiopathic hypertrophic aortic stenosis,” but unless she has a background in cardiology, she is not likely to know the meaning of the term behind the abbreviation.
When an abbreviation originates in another language or specific area of knowledge, the dictionary does make note of that. For example, the entry for “ibid.” identifies the abbreviation as originating from the Latin term ibidem, and gives its meaning (”in the same place”). Similarly, the abbreviation “ERI” identifies Eridanus as a constellation.
Perhaps one of the most fun aspects of this dictionary is its serendipity factor. While merely browsing the dictionary, one can find interesting entries like “IASOSFRGDOH” (International Amalgamated Society of Searchers for Rare, Greasy, Dirty Old Hubcaps) and “HAMSTeRS” (Haemophilia: A Mutation, Structure, Test, and Resource Site).
Whether you are reading a David Baldacci techno-thriller filled with acronyms or just needing an occasional abbreviation clarification, the American Heritage Abbreviations Dictionary is worth keeping on your bookshelf.
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