Museum "Acronyms" {=RIGHT! & may be abbreviations also}

[christian thompson]

Sorry, John, but my Random House College Dictionary (1973, page 13) has ACRONYM as *a word formed from the initial letters or groups of letters of words in a set phrase, as WAC from Women*s Army Corps or loran from long-range navigation.  Whereas ABREVIATION (page 2) from abbreviate is to shorten (a word or phrase) by omitting letters, substituting shorter forms, etc., as ft. for foot, ab. for about, R. I. for Rhode Island, N W for Northwest or Xn for Christian.

So, it is correct to call MCZ (Museum of Comparative Zoology) or BMNH (British Museum of Natural History), etc. ACRONYMs as there are. There can also be abbreviation.

Also, your URL is a dud.


F. Christian Thompson
Systematic Entomology Lab., ARS, USDA
Smithsonian Institution
Washington, D. C. 20560-0169
(202) 382-1800 voice
(202) 786-9422 FAX
cthompso at sel.barc.usda.gov [NB: no terminal "n"]
visit our Diptera site at www.diptera.org


>>> John Bruner <jbruner at gpu.srv.ualberta.ca> 07/24 12:26 PM >>>
Dear Christian Thompson:
        There are no such thing as museum "acronyms." If you mean museum
abbreviations, then one of the best lists is the following:
"ASIH Institutional Code Database"
http://lionfish.ims.usm.edu/~musweb/asih_codes.cgi 

        John
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