Need We Be Afraid Of ABBREVIATIONS?

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 201, 26 August 1939, Page 15 (Supplement)

Need We Be Afraid Of ABBREVIATIONS?

U r* 8.5." simply loathes abbreVJ. viations. "Yrs. ffly," at the end of a letter absolutely infuriates him. "Laziness" he calls it, and "discourtesy."' Wby? Ho tisps many abbreviations himself. " II" for "w ill," "it's" for "it is," etr., though sometimes ho tries to hide the fact by omitting tho apostrophe, and writes ".villi,'' "theyre," but also strangely enough, "I'll," I'd." Why need wo be ashamed of abbreviation-*'? there are, I know, some people (inelnding at least one famous novelist) who <■<.n-iirlrr " 'phono" to be terribly vulgar, '"id sarcastically suggest that we. mii'lit just as well say "'graph" and " Vram." instead <»f "telegraph" and "telegram." Probably we should, if we hadn't already discovered an even more suitable word—"wire"—to include both. As a matter of fact I have seen on a curtain firm's headed letter paper "'Phone 'grains Sperax." Put. dne« anybody really speak or write every word in fullV Who ever cnllcil for a "taximeter cabriolet"? There is, iinwniT, 11 town council which has notices at \arious places, "Omnibuses nlr>|i by rei|iicst." I believe there are ..till pet1111c who have "luiu-hcon," just as if I licv wi-re attending a public repa-t. ( The port manteau-word "brunch" for breakfast lunch —a meal taken in the middle nt the morning, by lute risers, especially on Sundays—would make them shudder!) Punctuation Marks Their letters, nt' course, are addressed in full. e.g. (I beg jxirdon—l .should say "I'm- example"): "Twenty dash seven Street comma (,'horiston comma In the county of York semi-colon The twenty dash ninth clay of the month of April comma In the Year of Our Lord Nineteen 1111 ii (I reft mid Thirty dash nine Period." ( Kigurcs and punctuation marks lire, of course, merely abbreviated forms of the appropriate words). They would take their families to the "Zoological (inrdens" preferably by the

Underground Railway (not the "Tube," ! of course). Perhaps they would pay a isit to the theatre to witness a performance of "His Majesty's Ship 'Pinafore,'" (or would they insist on "Pinbefore," regarding "afore" as merelv » "common" way of saying "before"!). Every evening, after dinner, they would formallv re ire to their "with-drawing room."

By A.H.

Even the most confirmed hater of abbreviations has to draw the line somewhere. He won't, of course, say "pub." for ' public-house" (he probably never speaks of it, anyway!), but he has no objection to the word "mob," which is & contraction of "vulgus mobile." On Diminutives He would be lost on a newspaper staff. Ads. ' and "pars." would horrify him. When Ix>rd Kitchener, during the South African War, wired that he had "bagged" SOU Boers, Britain's literary erudites, while excusing Lord Kitchener on the ground of speed, considered that the War Oflice should have changed "bagged" to "captured." Such abbreviations are a commonplace of newspaper life. Even . n ordinary telegrams, and especially in cables, it is not usually considered absolutely necessary to give every word to make the sentences grammatically correct. T must confess, however, that, although [ T am by no means an opponent of abbreviations, there are certain diminutives , that "get my goat." I don't mind "dad" , for "father," but "pa," particularly on , the lips of a grown-up, seems lx>th pert , and affected. One would scarcely think that any grown-up person would say , "ta" for "thank you." i. My real pet aversion is "hubby"! * Whenever I hear anyone tell my wife: "Bring your hubby with you," I feel like 5 replying: "Yes, I'll come with my e wifey!"