Source: ComiCSS.
People Can't Memorize Computer Industry Acronyms
this post was submitted on 25 Aug 2025
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...or PCMCIA for short.
This joke is brought to you by the old people who's knees hurt
I still use PCMCIAs at my job. Had to order a reader. It has been... challenging (particularly getting permissions to connect it to the system, but even finding them is not super easy).
It's more my back than my knees
I learned this one in coolsig.com (which I was recently surprised to learn still exists and looks basically as I remember it!). At the time, I looked up the actual meaning, but the one in this thread is the one I still remember.
Acronyms being "shorter and less scary" couldn't be more wrong
Don't really see comic strips about CSS, nice.
I think the most cursed part of this is the fact that the webcomic is "Coded with love in CSS"
Maybe all the text is in
.bubble:after {content: “my funny joke”}Those are initialisms, not acronyms. mic drop
An acronym is an abbreviation formed using the initial letters of a multi-word name or phrase.
This is what Wikipedia says to that. mic bounces back up straight into your face
;)
You can check multiple dictionaries (Oxford, Merriam Webster) and they will agree with me.
The oxford that says this?
Acronym
- A group of initial letters used as an abbreviation for a name or expression, each letter or part being pronounced separately; an initialism
or the merriam webster that says this?
Some people feel strongly that acronym should only be used for terms like NATO, which is pronounced as a single word, and that initialism should be used if the individual letters are all pronounced distinctly, as with FBI. Our research shows that acronym is commonly used to refer to both types of abbreviations.
Not sure which Oxford dictionary you're using, but the Google one says
an abbreviation formed from the initial letters of other words and pronounced as a word (e.g. ASCII, NASA )
Maybe it's been changed?
And Merriam Webster online says:
The word acronym typically applies when the resulting thing can be read as a word
My position on the whole "word meanings change over time" debate is: I agree, but if you used to have two words with distinct meanings and now they are getting collapsed into one, that's mostly because people weren't aware of a subtle distinction. And that's not a good reason to make the distinction meaningless for everyone.
FWIW my original comment was a joke, I hope that was clear.
This is it. Initialism is synonymous to acronym and some people think they know better and strongly believe that these words have separate meanings.
That's underdog prescriptionism: When you are in the minority but still think you can determine how everyone else has to speak.
They’re all abbr to me.
A meeting about some CSS details. Do they need help wiping their ass too?
Anybody want to translate the acronyms into their alternative meanings?
Men seeking men
Big beautiful woman
Bondage discipline sadism masochism
Wireless sensor network
And titties?
And my axe!
And my ex!
That last one is just depraved.
*Wet Sadistic Masochism
I've actually been using the term Too Many Acronyms (TMA for short) for years now. When I get see meeting invites that look like this, I say that I'm suffering from TMA.
I too am suffering from TMA, but it's related to archives instead of acronyms
A Criminal Regiment of Nasty Young Men