Norstedts och Svenska Akademien 18:21 Dec 3, 2013
My 1999 Norstedts Svenska Ordbok defines 'akronym' as "förkortning som består av initialer och uppfattas som ett namn el. ett ord, t.ex. NATO och SIFO", but Svenska Akademians ordlista (online) has only "förkortning som består av initialer". So as you say, Mats , confusion reigns in Swedish. Strictly, the English (BrEng and USEng) definition of 'acronym' is as in the OED extracts I produced earlier, but some sloppy usage also uses acronym for any initialism. We must agree to disagree on the English usage, Mats, but this has been an interesting discussion and we haven't even got onto hybrids like Benelux, radar and JPEG! |