The original SMS supported message lengths of 160 characters at most (using the GSM 03.38 character set), for instance. This was due largely to increasing popularity of textual communication services such as instant and text messaging. Widespread use of electronic communication through mobile phones and the Internet during the 1990s led to a marked rise in colloquial abbreviation. Over the years, however, the lack of convention in some style guides has made it difficult to determine which two-word abbreviations should be abbreviated with periods and which should not. Likewise, a century earlier in Boston, a fad of abbreviation started that swept the United States, with the globally popular term OK generally credited as a remnant of its influence. ĭuring the growth of philological linguistic theory in academic Britain, abbreviating became very fashionable. In modern times, ⟨Þ⟩ was often used (in the form ⟨y⟩) for promotional reasons, as in Y e Olde Tea Shoppe. In the Early Modern English period, between the 15th and 17th centuries, the thorn Þ was used for th, as in Þ e ('the'). Warden of Merton College, University of Oxford in Registrum Annalium Collegii Mertonensis, 1503. And wherɔ y wrot to you the last wyke that y trouyde itt good to differrɔ thelectionɔ ovɔ to quīdenaɔ tinitatis y have be thougħt me synɔ that itt woll be thenɔ a bowte mydsomɔ. While this may seem trivial, it was symptomatic of an attempt by people manually reproducing academic texts to reduce the copy time. For example, sequences like ‹er› were replaced with ‹ɔ›, as in ‹mastɔ› for master and ‹exacɔbate› for exacerbate.

At first, abbreviations were sometimes represented with various suspension signs, not only periods. The standardisation of English in the 15th through 17th centuries included a growth in the use of such abbreviations. Manuscripts of copies of the Old English poem Beowulf used many abbreviations, for example the Tironian et ( ⁊) or & for and, and y for since, so that 'not much space is wasted'. plural consules.Ībbreviations were frequently used in English from its earliest days. (For example, ⟨A⟩ can be an abbreviation for many words, such as ager, amicus, annus, as, Aulus, Aurelius, aurum and avus.)' Many frequent abbreviations consisted of more than one letter: for example COS for consul and COSS for its nominative etc. However, 'some could have more than one meaning, depending on their context. In Roman inscriptions, 'Words were commonly abbreviated by using the initial letter or letters of words, and most inscriptions have at least one abbreviation'.

In both Greece and Rome the reduction of words to single letters was common. This might be done to save time and space (given that many inscriptions were carved in stone) and also to provide secrecy. They were created to avoid spelling out whole words. Examples of contractions are 'li'l' (for 'little'), 'I'm' (for 'I am'), and 'he'd've' (for 'he would have').Ībbreviations have a long history. Often, but not always, the contraction includes the first and last letters or elements. Consequently, contractions are a subset of abbreviations. FBI ( /ˌɛf.biːˈaɪ/), USA ( /ˌjuː.ɛsˈeɪ/), IBM ( /ˌaɪ.biːˈɛm/), BBC ( /ˌbiː.biːˈsiː/)Ī contraction is a reduction in the length of a word or phrase made by omitting certain of its letters or syllables. : p167Ī initialism is an abbreviation pronounced by spelling out each letter, i.e.

4 Measurements: abbreviations or symbolsĪcronyms, initialisms, contractions and crasis share some semantic and phonetic functions, and all four are connected by the term 'abbreviation' in loose parlance.

3.4 Conventions followed by publications and newspapers.

Two letter abbreviations for words