When

• Gun shot wound = 3 syllables, and
• GSW = 5 syllables

We abbreviate to shorten, not lengthen.

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[–] 6 points 10 months ago (7 children)

It's quicker to write/type the abbreviation, so syllables don't matter. Most common example of more syllables in the abbreviation than the words themselves is "WWW" (9 syllables) for "World Wide Web" (3 syllables). Quicker to type but longer to speak.

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  • [+] 3 points 10 months ago* (3 children)
  • [–] 2 points 10 months ago

    While we're at it, I never understood why the convention for domain name wasn't left to right tld, domain, subdomain. Most significant on left is how we do almost everything else, including numbers and ISO 8601 dates.

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  • [–] 2 points 10 months ago (2 children)

    I saw Stephen Fry suggest once that it be pronounced "Wuh Wuh Wuh" which I kind of like :-)

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