Hi, English isn’t my mother tongue so I was asking myself that question since I first encounted a w/… Back then I was like: “What tf does ‘w slash’ stand for?” And when I found out I was like “How, why, and is it any intuitive?” But I never dared to ask that until now

  • Klear@lemmy.world
    292·
    1 year ago

    Wikipedia at least sees initialisms as a type of acronyms. But even if it didn’t, your comment would still be unhelpful pedantry.

          • kase@lemmy.world
            1·
            1 year ago

            Is that why people sometimes say “O.K.”? I always assumed it was just a grammar mistake. The more you know lol

            • seitanic@lemmy.sdf.org
              3·
              1 year ago

              Yeah, “O.K.” came first, “okay” was later. It has a weird history. According to the American Heritage Dictionary:

              During the 1830s there was a humoristic fashion in Boston newspapers to reduce a phrase to initials and supply an explanation in parentheses. Sometimes the abbreviations were misspelled to add to the humor. OK was used in March 1839 as an abbreviation for all correct, the joke being that neither the O nor the K was correct. Originally spelled with periods, this term outlived most similar abbreviations owing to its use in President Martin Van Buren’s 1840 campaign for reelection. Because he was born in Kinderhook, New York, Van Buren was nicknamed Old Kinderhook, and the abbreviation proved eminently suitable for political slogans.

    • ijeff@lemdro.idEnglish
      11·
      1 year ago

      I’m not the person you were replying to, but the source linked on the wiki for that statement actually refers to them as being distinct.