Nothing to LOL about here!
All those acronyms We are up to our necks in acronyms. From the RSPCA to the DWD, to CID and HMRC, they are impossible to ignore. They have entered our lives, with numbers increasing daily (along with the new varieties of emoji - which are not actually acronyms, so we’ll save that issue for another day). The first acronyms of note were SCOTUS (Supreme Court of the United States) and POTUS (President of the United States), created in late 19th Century America, as ways of saving words in the telegraph system. The explosion of acronyms during the last hundred and fifty years or so has tended to develop through technology, medical science, warfare, and legal systems, as well as traditional use by societies and charitable organisations. Many acronyms do not trip off the tongue lightly – The NUWSS (National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies) founded in 1897 – is a bit of a mouthful, and today, the UN Refugee Agency, (UNHCR) is not the easiest to recall. But other acronyms become familiar w...