Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Is FDIC an Acronym? Uh, No!

I listen to NPR quite a bit. I know, that's dangerous close to READING, which I avoid like the plague.

However, a day or two ago, I heard something on NPR that I found interesting, especially given my profession (that of corporate drone/copywriter).

I heard FDIC isn't an acronym. "What?" you ask. Yeah, I guess if the letters make up a word, as in SCUBA (self-contained underwater breathing apparatus), it's an acronym. But if not, it's an initialism. FDIC (Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation) is an initialism because it doesn't form a word, it's just an abbreviation made up of the first letters of the term/phrase/company name it represents.

Here's some information on this wildly fascinating distinction.

1 comment:

Jonderson said...

It is an acronym. The word is pronounced "Eff-dick", for reasons that should be obvious.