'Acronym' in Simon Spurrier's novel The Culled

Since my discussion with 'Anonymous' over the meaning of 'acronym', I keep finding examples of writers using 'acronym' when others would prefer 'initialism'.

The latest example comes from Simon Spurrier's post-apocalyptic novel The Culled. I quote:

We reached the front of the queue and caused something of a commotion. For a start, Nate's branding could hardly be covered with a simple piece of rag – unless he was prepared to submit to blindfolding, which he wasn't – but it was the nature of the mark itself that really got them riled. They kept exchanging looks, clenching their jaws, wondering out loud if they should fetch the 'Em-Bee'.

More f***ing acronyms.

Obviously, this novel is written in the first person so it could be that the narrator's understanding of 'acronym' differs from the author's. MB (or 'Em-Bee') here stands for 'master of bids'. Oh, and the stars are mine – I try to keep the blog reasonably safe for work.



UPDATE 23/11/08: Thanks, Harry, for lending me this book in the first place!

Acronyms: AM, MP, MEP and MSP

Raw copy today made reference to:

Plaid Cymru’s Chris Franks, South Wales Central AM

Who is this man, I wondered – a politician or a Welsh radio station?

AM is actually an acronym for Assembly Member; that is, a member of the National Assembly for Wales.

As such it is akin to MP (Member of Parliament), MEP (Member of the European Parliament) and MSP (Member of the Scottish Parliament).

But I think that AM is less widely understood than the other acronyms, at least outside Wales...

Traffic warden, parking attendant, CEO

I'm amused to learn that parking attendants (formerly known as 'traffic wardens'*) now go by the official name of 'civil enforcement officers'. There are two reasons that this amuses me:

• The acronym for civil enforcement officer is CEO, which obviously is already used for 'chief executive officer'. Are parking attendants trying to sneak themselves some kudos?

• Parking attendants are, in my limited experience, sometimes less than civil. But then they are often given a less than civil reception by members of the public...
  

More on CEOs in Westminster



* Apparently the difference between a traffic warden (pictured) and a parking attendant is that the former is employed by the police whereas the latter is employed by a local authority. I did not know that!

Acronyms: WAGs and CHAPs

We've written before about the phenonemon of WAGs – the wives and girlfriends of the English national football team. It's an acronym much loved by the tabloid press over here, and Wikipedia has quite a good entry on the term WAG.

It occurred to me recently, however, that although collectively these wives and girlfriends can be referred to as WAGs, it is somewhat difficult to have one WAG, for one cannot simultaneously be both a wife and girlfriend (of the same football player). One would be a wife OR girlfriend.

Wikipedia also mentions the acronym CHAPs: celebrities' husbands and partners. One CHAP would surely be a CHOP, which is also amusing but much less offensive than calling someone a WOG...

Acronyms: my company is ASS

House style at the publication I work for is to shorten long, multi-word company names to an acronym after first use (if possible). For example, 'Jonathan Smithson International' will be called 'Jonathan Smithson International (JSI)' on first use and after that just 'JSI'. This saves space, is easier to read and reduces the risk of typos.

Today I was subbing a story about a firm called Appropriate Scaffolding Services and was just about to shorten its name to an acronym when I realised that referring to it as 'ASS' throughout the feature possibly wouldn't be appreciated by its directors.... although it might have given readers on both sides of the Atlantic a chuckle.

No FT style book... no comment

Tucked into my Christmas stocking was a copy of the Financial Times Style Guide; whether Mrs Apus was commenting on my lack of style I have yet to ascertain. In any case, while flicking through it as an aid to the digestion of a rather fine rib of beef on Christmas afternoon I came across the following, under 'honorifics':

Do not give awards such as VC... Queen's Counsel keep their QC.

This alone was enough to put me off the entire 218-page guide.

Why? Because the suffix VC stands for Victoria Cross, which is the UK's highest award for valour, to the extent that many heroes have been awarded their VCs posthumously. A Queen's Counsel is a senior barrister (lawyer) who is appointed on the recommendation of the Lord Chancellor.

Subs who run foul of the libel laws might have good reason to fear encountering a QC, but do the FT's subs really rate a VC below a QC?

Whoever came up with that one should be ashamed of themselves.

PS
The same style guide calls for the use of Mr/Mrs/Ms in news stories -- except for "people in show business, sportsmen and the dead".

It was almost enough to put a chap off his Christmas pudding.

Finance can be fun

I came across a great financial acronym yesterday.

I'd already heard of management buy-outs, or MBOs, which is when a company is purchased by its existing management. However, when a company is purchased by a combination of its existing management and an external management team, this is known as a 'buy-in management buy-out', or - wait for it - a BIMBO.

"We bought the company through a BIMBO." Immortal words.