For those not in the know, it stands for the French words “répondez s’il vous plaît,” which literally mean “respond, if you please.”

RSVP is an abbreviation that I didn’t understand for a very long time. But then, I don’t speak/understand French.

LOL: I think of it as three letters, “ell-oh-ell.” I didn’t think of it this way two years ago.

ASAP: I’ve been thinking of this as letters (not an acronym) for 25-30 years, I imagine.

OTOH: I’m pretty sure I’m still thinking of this one as words: “on the other hand.”

OMG: I’ve just started thinking of this amusing abbreviation as letters within the past 12 months or so. “O. M. G.” (With full stops after every letter, for emphasis.)

WTF: If I were writing haikus about a baseball team or something like that, I think it would be most amusing to spell out the letters syllabically, thus: “double-you-tee-eff.” I think it’s strong enough and ubiquitous enough that at least I would get the joke if you did that. Particularly if you followed it with a question mark:

“Double-you-tee-eff?!?”

YMMV. (Your mileage may vary.) Others may feel free to chime in, particularly about “WTF.”

As you might recall (probably not, I mentioned it here only once and I’m not exactly a frequent contributor) I have a couple of haiku blogs, where counting syllables is obviously very important.

I wanted to use “WTF” to express my anger on the Cubs blog (www.thecubsinhaiku.com) after a particularly annoying loss. I wasn’t sure whether it should be counted as 3 syllables or 5 syllables.

My daughters were certain that it was 5 syllables, and thought it was silly that I would have considered it to be only 3.

Here’s the thing … when I see “WTF” or other such abbreviations I think of the actual words. It seems that it’s sort of like learning a foreign language. To middle-aged parents, these shortcuts are new words. So, just as I think “water” when I hear or read “agua”, I think “Oh my G-d” when I see OMG.

My kids, and their contemporaries, OTOH (did you read “OTOH” or “on the other hand”? … see what I mean?) are more comfortable with the abbreviations as words. So, when some of our younger office staff started putting up “Happy Birthday” signs we got stuff like “OMG … Lori is 40 Years Old … LOL!”. None of the over 40 folks would have even THOUGHT do make a sign like that.

Conversely, there are “old” abbreviations that we old guys use similarly to how the younguns use the texting shortcuts. One example … do you say “ASAP” or “As Soon As Possible”?

Those abbreviations and acronyms are part of our “native” language. The internet shortcuts are not.

TTFN

Ed

on a minivan: US2BKUL

on a white Ford Bronco: NOT OJS

on a BMW: BEZAHLT

Miata convertible/gray-haired guy: COOLOPA

Kings hockey player? ISK84LA

On a Lexus S.U.V.: ERNDIT

No special vehicle/driver:
XNUYRKR
LTMETCK
IPB4IGO
HIHWRU
CHVLREE
HVNKNWS
UN4GTBL
IMU4IK
PBNJS
IRPRFKT
IINUTHAT
REELYL8
10 ACT
WSNTEZ
SLVPBMS

Keep providing fun topics!
Alan

i work in IT, and my job is to answer Helpdesk calls. once the call is over and the ticket is closed, we have a few abbreviations of our own that we use to classify the type of issue. i wanted to share them.

RTFM – Read the F’ing Manual, something we wish we could tell all users

ID10T – not really an abbreviation, but what does it spell if you think of the 1 and the 0 and letters I and O?

and the classic…

PEBKAC – Problem Exists Between Keyboard And Chair, a fancier, more sarcastic way of indicating an operator error

i’ve been listening for over a year now and love it, so please keep up the good work. as a matter of fact, listening to you guys has partly influenced & assisted my recent desire to become a teacher.

thanks so much!