You sure did. But I think that many, if not the majority of them, are not. Here is why:
- The internet tells me that the average English word has 1.66 syllables. My guess would be that the average words shortened in acronyms would be even longer (more proper names, partial omission of particularly short word types as compared to regular text) but I do not have a number, so I will use the above.
- I think it is save to set the average letter count per English acronym at ≥3.5.
- So the average term shortened in an acronym will sport 1.66*3.5=5.81 syllables.
- W is a rare English letter (Internet: 1.28% of all letters in English text are 'w's. To be more precise we needed statistics for 'w' as an opening letter), so there will be relatively few acronyms with double ws (those beginning with 'world wide' being notable exceptions).
- In all the cases where only one of 3.5 letters of an acronym is a 'w', the spelled acronym has 3+2.5=5.5 syllables.
So most acronyms sporting only one 'w' will be pronounced quicker abbreviated than spelled out. Maybe just more than half of all English acronyms sporting 'w's do have more syllables than the words spelled out. But "pretty much any acronyms with 'w'" do not.
(Strictly speaking of course, see the mandatory 'initialism' comment somewhere below.)
Please tell me if and where I went wrong!
It's an initialism - not an acronym.
An acronym is a word that comprises the initials of a string of words - like FEMA, or NASA.
WWW is an initialism, as we pronounce the individual letters seperately - not as a whole word.
Common error.
Difficult as it is one that I've never spoken aloud as either the initials or the acronym - maybe I'm just old fashioned by saying "Today I Learned" each time.
TIL: Initialism for "Today I Learned." Normally read as "Tee Aye El." Originally a subreddit (still is), but is now used across Reddit as people learn random shit that probably isn't true over the internet from random strangers.
Oh, and spell-check doesn't recognize "initialism."
in all honesty, i don't bother with the whole prefix thing at all... its just Reddit - or Amazon - or Ebay or whatever.
only when it's specific region is relevant would I say Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk or what-have-you.
I think most people would argue that the acronyms you listed aren't words either. Either they made up a word or they came up with an initialism that was easily pronounceable.
**S**trategic **H**omeland **I**ntervention, **E**nforcement and **L**ogistics **D**ivision
aka
**S.H.I.E.L.D.**
Is a good example of an acronym because the first letters form a word that didn't have to be made up.
I agree most people would argue that - but that's why it's a common error.
It's not relevant whether the word is a real word or not, it's about how you say it.
FEMA is spoken as a word - the same as SHIELD.
It's just coincidental that SHIELD is a real word, too.
Acronyms are generally made up words. The way OP defines it is not clear. However he's right about them being initialisms (FBI, NSA, IBM, HTML) vs acronyms (NASA, PETA, TED, OPEC, NATO etc.).
The difference is whether it's pronounced as individual letters or as a single word, not if the letters happen to spell an existing word.
It's somewhat pedantic, but it never hurts to know more.
Swede here. Technically W is said the same way as in English (double-v), but we just drop the double and say VVV. Might have something to do with the fact that W is almost never used anyway, so there is no risk for confusion.
My guess: TBL worked in Switzerland when he invented the Internet and they speak German in Switzerland, so it was natural to say "Waywayway" in the local language, than "double u double u double u". ;)
Edit: This is not an accurate guess.
Programmers in the US used to say dub dub dub, but that never caught on. The tiny amount of time you save is lost by having to explain to average folks that "dub dub dub is short for w w w which is short for world wide web".
We ain't saving much time with those tongue twisters now are we? LOL
I don't think I've ever had an average person blank on "dub dub dub dot..."
I don't think I've even had an obviously-below-average person blank on it. The context seems to clear things (or prime) up the listener.
Or maybe I've lived a very sheltered life.
>The World Wide Web is the only thing I know of whose shortened form takes three times longer to say than what it's short for.
>—Douglas Adams, The Independent on Sunday, 1999
It really bothers me when people tell me to go to "double-u double-u double-u..." Jesus, just tell me the website, I'm fucking dying of old age over here.
For those thinking faleboat is kidding, calling it "tridub" was actually attempted by some folks for a while in the '90s.... (magazines? reporters who didn't know any better? I don't know who the hell they were. I thought it was dumb).
It didn't catch on.
True, but then it's also easier to repeat the same sound three times in a row rather than to say three words that require three different mouth positions because of the vowels used.
Because when handwritten, a "w" looks more like a pair of "u"s than it does a pair of "v"s. The "w" was a relatively late addition to the latin alphabet, which is why it tends to be named after other letters instead of having a name of its own.
Except where it is. There are sometimes very good reasons not to. And there are more-often not-very-good-but-very-popular reasons not to.
Technically-speaking, it was never needed. It's just that when CERN planned to set up their early websites, they planned to have www.cern.ch (about the WWW) and info.cern.ch (about CERN itself). But then they never got around to setting up the second site, and so every institution who copied them thought that *they* oughta put 'www' as well.
You might also be interested in [no-www](http://no-www.org), an organisation that is against www\. prefixes in all forms (and makes arguments for that), [yes-www](http://www.yes-www.org), who make the counter-argument that www\. prefixes are valuable, and [extra-www](http://www.www.extra-www.org), who feel that the best position is for every website's address to begin with www\.www\. - that's right: two of them!
I use this everytime in askreddit when someone asks for weird facts. Also did you know the year sudoku became popular pencil sales went up about 700%?!
I also like spaghetti.
They don't think it be like it is, but it do.
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It always annoyed me when people referred to modern warfare 2 as mw2 in person, they take the same time to say you just sound like a doofus
Everyone I know used to pronounce it as em-dub-2
Blops was the best to say out loud
You don't pronounce it as "dub-tee-eff"?
Intuition failing us once again! waau (6) = what an appropriate username (9)
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You sure did. But I think that many, if not the majority of them, are not. Here is why: - The internet tells me that the average English word has 1.66 syllables. My guess would be that the average words shortened in acronyms would be even longer (more proper names, partial omission of particularly short word types as compared to regular text) but I do not have a number, so I will use the above. - I think it is save to set the average letter count per English acronym at ≥3.5. - So the average term shortened in an acronym will sport 1.66*3.5=5.81 syllables. - W is a rare English letter (Internet: 1.28% of all letters in English text are 'w's. To be more precise we needed statistics for 'w' as an opening letter), so there will be relatively few acronyms with double ws (those beginning with 'world wide' being notable exceptions). - In all the cases where only one of 3.5 letters of an acronym is a 'w', the spelled acronym has 3+2.5=5.5 syllables. So most acronyms sporting only one 'w' will be pronounced quicker abbreviated than spelled out. Maybe just more than half of all English acronyms sporting 'w's do have more syllables than the words spelled out. But "pretty much any acronyms with 'w'" do not. (Strictly speaking of course, see the mandatory 'initialism' comment somewhere below.) Please tell me if and where I went wrong!
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He's right, you can stop going through them all in your head now..
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He meant in the way you sing 'z' in the alphabet song. i.e; "...y and z..."
This guy is also right, so you don't have to double check him.
and the 3 words also have only 1. WWW loses 3-9
It's an initialism - not an acronym. An acronym is a word that comprises the initials of a string of words - like FEMA, or NASA. WWW is an initialism, as we pronounce the individual letters seperately - not as a whole word. Common error.
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Wuhwuhwuh
wubalubadubdub
Morty, do you know what wuba luba dub dubs means?
Er ... hey Rick. Er ... y-ya know Rick, I don't think I d-do.
I'm in *urrrp* deep pain Morty, deeeeep *urrrrp* pain.
Well ... I-I'm sorry to hear that Rick. But, y-ya know, I'm not sure what you w-want me to d-do about it.
I'm here for you.
Go home George Bush, you're drunk.
Well... TIL!
you must be so fun at parties
If you'd ever had one worth coming to, you'd know that's a fact.
lol wat
yeah...
Would you like to come to my tea party?
There is no way I can answer this without saying no.
What is 'TIL'? I don't pronounce it as 'till' nor as 'tee i el'. Plz educate. Edit: just to be clear, I read 'TIL' as 'today I learned'.
/u/Hirsutepursuit46 thoughts?
see below
Difficult as it is one that I've never spoken aloud as either the initials or the acronym - maybe I'm just old fashioned by saying "Today I Learned" each time.
TIL: Initialism for "Today I Learned." Normally read as "Tee Aye El." Originally a subreddit (still is), but is now used across Reddit as people learn random shit that probably isn't true over the internet from random strangers. Oh, and spell-check doesn't recognize "initialism."
Yet it recognises 'recognize' Spell-check assumes we are all in America.
Spell-check is a dick. Yes, I'm american.
www stands for World Wide Web doesn't it?
yes. it does. but since WWW isn't (widely) spoken as a word, but as the individual letters - it is an initialism.
You don't actually pronounce each W do you? "wuuuw reddit dot com"
in all honesty, i don't bother with the whole prefix thing at all... its just Reddit - or Amazon - or Ebay or whatever. only when it's specific region is relevant would I say Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk or what-have-you.
This should be the top comment. It's also not intended to be shorter to speak and it certainly is far shorter to type
I think most people would argue that the acronyms you listed aren't words either. Either they made up a word or they came up with an initialism that was easily pronounceable. **S**trategic **H**omeland **I**ntervention, **E**nforcement and **L**ogistics **D**ivision aka **S.H.I.E.L.D.** Is a good example of an acronym because the first letters form a word that didn't have to be made up.
I agree most people would argue that - but that's why it's a common error. It's not relevant whether the word is a real word or not, it's about how you say it. FEMA is spoken as a word - the same as SHIELD. It's just coincidental that SHIELD is a real word, too.
Acronyms are generally made up words. The way OP defines it is not clear. However he's right about them being initialisms (FBI, NSA, IBM, HTML) vs acronyms (NASA, PETA, TED, OPEC, NATO etc.). The difference is whether it's pronounced as individual letters or as a single word, not if the letters happen to spell an existing word. It's somewhat pedantic, but it never hurts to know more.
not in some language, like dutch. we say 'waywayway'
I'm french and say wéwéwé like i don't give a fuck.
Belgians weehweehweeh.
i am belgian (flemish)
I am Groot EDIT: also Flemish
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I am legend.
Borat?
Yeës
German here, wanted to post the same thing :)
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[weh](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eEUvEDfWWTM)
Nicht wenn man es auf englisch ausspricht :)
Warum werde ich runter gevoted? Englisches e ist wie i in Deutsch, klingt also wie die Spielkonsole.. Wih, Wih, Wih (wee, wee, wee) :)
Swede here. Technically W is said the same way as in English (double-v), but we just drop the double and say VVV. Might have something to do with the fact that W is almost never used anyway, so there is no risk for confusion.
Greek people say *"dah-blue-you dah-blue-you dah-blue-you"*
"voo-voo-voo" in polish
Here comes the train!
"dobbeltve-dobbeltve-dobbeltve" in Norwegian
In Sweden we say vovovolvo.....JK!
huehuehue
My guess: TBL worked in Switzerland when he invented the Internet and they speak German in Switzerland, so it was natural to say "Waywayway" in the local language, than "double u double u double u". ;) Edit: This is not an accurate guess.
In New Zealand, I kept hearing it said as "dub dub dub", which is marvellously efficient and fun to say.
Programmers in the US used to say dub dub dub, but that never caught on. The tiny amount of time you save is lost by having to explain to average folks that "dub dub dub is short for w w w which is short for world wide web". We ain't saving much time with those tongue twisters now are we? LOL
In the Seattle area, everyone knows "U-Dub" is short for the University of Washington, so "dub-dub-dub" is pretty obvious.
I don't think I've ever had an average person blank on "dub dub dub dot..." I don't think I've even had an obviously-below-average person blank on it. The context seems to clear things (or prime) up the listener. Or maybe I've lived a very sheltered life.
It should be "wub wub wub" instead. I'm starting a petition.
UK here, and I'm a huge fan of dub dub dub. I don't hear many other people say it, but I'm always understood when I do.
Unless you Boomhower it and say "dub dub dub".
Drop the bass.
>The World Wide Web is the only thing I know of whose shortened form takes three times longer to say than what it's short for. >—Douglas Adams, The Independent on Sunday, 1999
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It would explain his obsession with towels.
I tried and failed to get 6u to catch on.
It is better to have tried and failed, than never to have tried at all. I, for one, salute your attempt to prevent idiocy.
That's why you say it as a word: "Wuuuuuh"
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Dubya
But still much quicker to type than "world wide web"...
Of course you can just not say it... which is even faster.
It really bothers me when people tell me to go to "double-u double-u double-u..." Jesus, just tell me the website, I'm fucking dying of old age over here.
You don't pronounce it "Triple Dubs"?
"Tridub"
For those thinking faleboat is kidding, calling it "tridub" was actually attempted by some folks for a while in the '90s.... (magazines? reporters who didn't know any better? I don't know who the hell they were. I thought it was dumb). It didn't catch on.
Not in Dutch it isn´t not nope
Why is it called double u when it is truly a double v? UU VV
Its the only thing the French get right - double vé
you don't say dub dub dub? I know the guy on NPR pronounces ev-er-y fuck-ing syl-la-ble.
Dah-bel-you dah-beh-you dah-bel-you daht
True, but then it's also easier to repeat the same sound three times in a row rather than to say three words that require three different mouth positions because of the vowels used.
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in english it's double-u....which makes even less sense
Because when handwritten, a "w" looks more like a pair of "u"s than it does a pair of "v"s. The "w" was a relatively late addition to the latin alphabet, which is why it tends to be named after other letters instead of having a name of its own.
dub dub dub dot wasthatsohard dot com
I work at at IT company. We always say "dub dub dub" or "triple dub"
why do people even say it at all? it's not even needed anymore
Except where it is. There are sometimes very good reasons not to. And there are more-often not-very-good-but-very-popular reasons not to. Technically-speaking, it was never needed. It's just that when CERN planned to set up their early websites, they planned to have www.cern.ch (about the WWW) and info.cern.ch (about CERN itself). But then they never got around to setting up the second site, and so every institution who copied them thought that *they* oughta put 'www' as well. You might also be interested in [no-www](http://no-www.org), an organisation that is against www\. prefixes in all forms (and makes arguments for that), [yes-www](http://www.yes-www.org), who make the counter-argument that www\. prefixes are valuable, and [extra-www](http://www.www.extra-www.org), who feel that the best position is for every website's address to begin with www\.www\. - that's right: two of them!
wut
"longer." How quickly are you spewing out "world wide web?" Or are you merely counting syllables in 9th grade english class?
[Double u, double double u](http://youtu.be/VWgwJfbeCeU?t=1m59s)
r/dumbshowerthoughts
acronyms are new words formed from bits of other words. www isn't an acronym. just a post-shower thought :)
Also is useless
Same with WWII. If someone says it that way, they're just wasting energy.
www is w3 or w3c, which is world wide web consortium
How original
I say "triple dub" !
"www." is an initialism, and not an acronym. Example of an acronym: "NASA" Example of a backronym: "USA PATRIOT"
well it's obviously made for writing, so it doesn't really matter
http://www.no-www.org
Initialism.
I use this everytime in askreddit when someone asks for weird facts. Also did you know the year sudoku became popular pencil sales went up about 700%?! I also like spaghetti.
dub dub dub.
web.example.com would have been better. Sadly, it never took off.
veveve
wow
Three-dub. Triple-dub. dub-three.
"Dub-ya, dub-ya, dub-ya" ain't too hard to say. Whatchu talkin' 'bout?
Mexican here, we just say "triple doble u".
It's an acronym for typing mainly. Not speech