Online Acronym Clarification

[Margaret Note Spelling]

One thing I would have loved to have, for some forums, was an "Online Acronym Clarification" thread, for the people (like me) who still had no idea what BRB, AFK, CU, TPTB, and TL;DR meant. I know what they all mean now--but the last one took me forever to figure out. It can be pretty fun trying to figure out what they mean on occasion, and it became kind of a game to try and pick their meanings up from context, but there were times (reading other forums; not this one, you lovely people) when I simply couldn't figure out what was being said.

My idea is that if anybody wants a common online acronym explained, they could ask here, or if they have an acronym in mind that hasn't been mentioned yet, they could post it here with a definition. I'll start with a few of the more common ones.

BRB--Be Right Back
AFK--Away From Keyboard
CU--(This one is obvious if you say it aloud, but I still get confused looking at it)
IDK--I Don't Know
TBH--To Be Honest
ROTFL--Rolling On The Floor Laughing
IMHO--In My Humble Opinion
IIRC--If I Recall Correctly
IRL--In Real Life
TPTB--The Powers That Be

I'm sure I've probably missed a few thousand or so.

 

[tinkerdan]

There are a large number of online resources for this.

This one....

The Largest List of Chat Acronyms and Text Message Shorthand (IM, SMS) found of the Web - updated daily by NetLingo The Internet Dictionary: Online Dictionary of Internet Terms, Acronyms, Text Messaging, Smileys ;-)

Start surfing the web's famous curated collection of online culture, NetLingo is the leading Internet dictionary that defines thousands of digital communication, technology and business terms, plus the largest list of texting jargon and online acronyms :) | NetLingo.com

www.netlingo.com

IMHO...goes way too far and you might want to reserve time for perusal.

 

[Zoe Mackay]

I'm not sure that list isn't becoming quite outdated. The use of acronyms and initialisms is definitely less pervasive now than it was a decade ago, apart from a few obvious ones like "lol".

 

[tinkerdan]

I think that site is pretty much up to date.
It probably depends on where you browse around on the internet and who you hang with.
Sure with twitter and others loosening the purse-strings on word count there might be a momentary secession of some use.
Eventually even those word counts begin to become too valuable to waste.
They are adding--every day.

 

[tinkerdan]

BTW
At the bottom of the link above there is a brief paragraph about Acronyms and Abbreviations(initializations).
Most of these fall in initializations[abbreviations].

So the title of this thread would be better as Initialization Clarifications.
J2LYK

 

[Margaret Note Spelling]

Great point, although unfortunately I can't change it now.

10Q--Thank You!

(J2LYK--...Just To Let You Know? It occurs to me we could probably make a game of this in the Playrooms if enough people were interested.)