After many years of ignorance, I have learned the meaning of "Wombat" as used here by some

[BobRodes]

Rather than being simply a colorful use of a certain Australian marsupial for an object reference as one may often find on certain of these forums, "WOMBAT" is also an apparently British acronym standing for "Waste Of Money, Brains And Time."

One may thank Mr Charles Stross for letting the cat out of the bag, in his entertaining "The Rhesus Chart." Apologies to strongm (among perhaps others) for my further dissemination of this information to the uninformed (there is, of course, the possibility that the set of the uninformed is limited to one member; this post assumes otherwise) and thereby diluting its value. But of course I am not to blame: anyone of sufficiently cosmopolitan awareness will certainly know that openness and inclusiveness are values rooted deep in the American culture of which I must count myself a member. If anyone is to blame, Stross is. After all, he's British; he ought to know better.

An unforeseen consequence of the information revolution has been the exponential propagation of human error.

 

[Olaf Doschke]

I would lie if I said this acronym was known to me, yet it also didn't cross me up to now, at least I don't remember. But I know acronyms in general and where to look up their meaning.

Acronyms changed my ways. I rather talk of Tacos than Pitas and I don't like non lawyers talk about law. Before I knew of the meaning of acronym "IMHO" always appeared to me in strengthening the opinion, that was told and not undermininig, so those acronyms often hide the meaning. After I found out it means "In my humble opinion" I knew indeed it was used by experts to not weaken their point and on the one side state it to those, who also know the acronym meaning but otherwise just hide that fact, they don't know what they talk about.

So, to conclude, I think we think alike of acronyms.

I just looked for a plugin, which extends acronyms. I know this would be possible, as there are similar plugins changing text of sites on the fly.

Bye, Olaf.

 

[strongm]

Also Women of Beauty and Temptation ...

 

[ChrisHirst]

Technically; IMHO is not an acronym, as acronyms are a set of capital letters that can be or are, pronounced as a word, NASA, NATO, FUBAR are acronyms. Now sure IMHO could be pronounced as "imm oh" I've never heard anyone that does, which is an argument from ignorance of course,


{now steps out of pedants corner and exits stage right]

Chris.

Indifference will be the downfall of mankind, but who cares?
Time flies like an arrow, however, fruit flies like a banana.

Never mind this jesus character, stars had to die for me to live.

 

[Olaf Doschke]

Don't teach me, I didn't attach the name acronym to it, the world did, and sites like acronymfinder are explaining all such acronyms.

Bye, Olaf.

 

[strongm]

But Olaf, Acronymfinder (correctly) classifies IMHO as an abbreviation, not an acronym.

 

[Olaf Doschke]

I take the point not all abbreviations are acronyms, Well, I knew this. German has the similar word "Akronym".

Still I am not the only one used to this term. The major nature of those internet or usenet acronyms, which cover both real gramatical acronyms and abbreviations, there is no special distinction about internet abbreviations I know of. You may blame that to those inventing them, surely not the type of arts or humanities scholar.

In german a strict abbreviation will also have points, so this again is another difference more strict in german vs english than just the distinction of forming a (pronouncable) word or not.

Bye, Olaf.

 

[ChrisHirst]

Still I am not the only one used to this term. The major nature of those internet or usenet acronyms, which cover both real gramatical acronyms and abbreviations, there is no special distinction about internet abbreviations I know of.

Hence my usage of "Technically" to start the sentence, rather than "The common usage of ... ..."

Chris.

Indifference will be the downfall of mankind, but who cares?
Time flies like an arrow, however, fruit flies like a banana.

Never mind this jesus character, stars had to die for me to live.

 

[Olaf Doschke]

I wouldn't call that technically, that's very misleading to say the least.

Anyway, forget all I said, I should have known better where I am posting.

Bye, Olaf.

 

[ChrisHirst]

"Technical" as in the common usage of "being precise"

Chris.

Indifference will be the downfall of mankind, but who cares?
Time flies like an arrow, however, fruit flies like a banana.

Never mind this jesus character, stars had to die for me to live.

 

[Olaf Doschke]

We have very differing oppinions on this and many other things.

Bye, Olaf.

 

[guitarzan]

Olaf:

 

[ChrisHirst]

We have very differing oppinions on this and many other things.

Yes; You consider that words have intrinsic meanings, when in English they only have usages, thus English language dictionaries are descriptive not prescriptive.

Chris.

Indifference will be the downfall of mankind, but who cares?
Time flies like an arrow, however, fruit flies like a banana.

Never mind this jesus character, stars had to die for me to live.

 

[kwbMitel]

I find it amusing that we are arguing about this when a word like literally no longer means literally simply from common usage. The same applies to a word like acronym. Common usage is not it's "literal" meaning any more.

A second argument might be to ask that we define what makes a word a word. Does it have to have a meaningful pronunciation? In much the same way as fcuk is immediately recognizable as a word to our brains but is not pronounceable IMHO is recognizable by meaning and symbols. Personally I don't sound out the letters individually or as a whole. It is just a representation of a meaning composed of letters. That's pretty close to the "literal" definition of a word IMHO. BTW, IM-HO is growing on me as a way to say it. Who's to say in a few years that isn't exactly how it is said and understood.

Do you grok what I laying down?

**********************************************
What's most important is that you realise ... There is no spoon.

 

[ChrisHirst]

as fcuk is immediately recognizable as a word

Not as a 'word' but it is recognisable as a brand, the 'word' that our pattern seeking brains could identify it as is the spoken equivalent of an exclamation mark, which IS why it was/is so effective as a brand name.
I'll not bother typing it out because the forum will probably censor it as a word. It's just a word people, it has no power over you, and any connection to sexual activity is purely in your mind.

Chris.

Indifference will be the downfall of mankind, but who cares?
Time flies like an arrow, however, fruit flies like a banana.

Never mind this jesus character, stars had to die for me to live.

 

[IPGuru]

returning to the start of this thread I would not be at all surprised to find that this Definition of WOMBAT is actually a Bacronym (word used first meaning created to fit), which is actually the case for many acronyms.

a lot of time is spent finding product names/descriptions that result in good acronyms.




Do things on the cheap & it will cost you dear