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It's Acronymania All Over Again
With Due Reference to YB Yogi Berra
Arthur E. Baue, MD
Arch Surg. 2002;137:486-489.
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The chief merit of language is clearness and we know that nothing detracts so much from this as do unfamiliar terms.—Galen on the Natural Faculties
The beginning of wisdom is to call things by their right names.—Chinese proverb
Does everything have to be reduced to an acronym? Is it to save space or is it just a cute way to develop an expression? Whether you call it acronymia, as the late William Beck1 did, or acronymitis, as Bernard Jaffe2 did, it is the same.
When I read a scientific article, I look for the definitions of the acronyms at the beginning. All respectable journals will insist on ICAM (intracellular adhesion molecule) being defined the first time it is used and also all other acronyms. Failure to do so leaves readers hanging. The purpose of writing is education. Tell us what you are acronyming about. . . . [Full Text of this Article]
From St Louis University School of Medicine, St Louis, Mo.
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