When did all the government acronyms sneak into our vocabulary?

seadoug

seadoug

Well-known Member
Location
Texas
First, it was SCOTUS, POTUS, FLOTUS, etc. The latest seems to be CentCom. At first, I thought it was a channel, then realized it was Central Communications. To me, the acronyms are out of control. Do we no longer have the time to spell it out?

And when does a "troop" mean a person? When I was growing up, a troop was always identified as a group of people. Now, when "200 troops were killed" it means individuals.

Okay, I guess I'm just getting old.
 

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I think I first became aware of the term POTUS when West Wing originally aired. I just looked it up and it has been used since the days of the telegraph. The show VEEP kind of solidified the term in my head but I never use it myself. SCOTUS was a code for the telegraph also. I guess they even shortened things back then 😉
 
seadoug said:
First, it was SCOTUS, POTUS, FLOTUS, etc. The latest seems to be CentCom. At first, I thought it was a channel, then realized it was Central Communications. To me, the acronyms are out of control. Do we no longer have the time to spell it out?

And when does a "troop" mean a person? When I was growing up, a troop was always identified as a group of people. Now, when "200 troops were killed" it means individuals.

Okay, I guess I'm just getting old.
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A few weeks ago I found out what POTUS means. It sounds so stupid. SCOTUS what is that? It sounds like a dirty word.
I do like things like ROTFLMAO, because that makes me feel young and hip, that I know what it means. But the best one is LOL, because lol in Dutch means fun.
 
I've noticed that the pharmaceutical ads are much worse. They come up with the names of drugs that look like the shook up a cup of scrabble tiles then figure out how to say it. That's bad enough but then they name the disease that they cure by saying a long string of letters that really have no meaning unless you read the little bitty print that flashes up for two micro seconds.

Finally they hire a recognized person from TV or movies to read a script and repeat the disease acronym about fifty times. The sum total they want you to run to your doctor and ask for a prescription. In years past I never saw ads like that. It's pretty obvious that they are trying to push us away from cheaper generics and paying doctors and pharmacists a spif to move their product.
 
IrishEyes said:
Don't they have spell check on their computers? They won't have to type the whole word even, just click
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but they probably originate in spoken language first - and obviously much quicker to say , for example, my PIN than my personal identification number or AIDS than Acquired immune deficiency syndrome

and many times, in Australia anyway, the abbreviation or acronym, becomes much more well known than what it is short for - all of us here know QANTAS pronounced as the word looks but probably most people don't know what the letters stand for
 
The acronym invasion started for me at work, as the old guard began to retire and the new guard took over (I was somewhere in the middle of it all). Little by little, almost everything was an acronym.

I've seen it in online chat quite a bit as well .. now things like LOL (laugh out loud) have made it to regular conversation.

Sometimes, I just have to ask "What is AFPBSQTYWZ...."
 
seadoug said:
First, it was SCOTUS, POTUS, FLOTUS, etc. The latest seems to be CentCom. At first, I thought it was a channel, then realized it was Central Communications. To me, the acronyms are out of control. Do we no longer have the time to spell it out?

And when does a "troop" mean a person? When I was growing up, a troop was always identified as a group of people. Now, when "200 troops were killed" it means individuals.

Okay, I guess I'm just getting old.
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Speaking of "troop" instead of a person, how about "boots on the ground?" That one makes me want to scream!
 
Doug...I always thought that troop meant a group of people too! I'm glad I'm not the only one! I agree that all these acronyms have gotten to be just too much. We got the DHA, DEA, CDC, FBI, DOD, DOJ, CTS, INTERPOL, BOP and we even have DAG. :LOL: There are so many more. Here's a list: Agency Acronym Names

And I believe there's some on this list that are not on the other list:
U.S. Government Acronym List
😵‍💫😵‍💫😵‍💫
 
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Rider77 said:
I've noticed that the pharmaceutical ads are much worse. They come up with the names of drugs that look like the shook up a cup of scrabble tiles then figure out how to say it. That's bad enough but then they name the disease that they cure by saying a long string of letters that really have no meaning unless you read the little bitty print that flashes up for two micro seconds.

Finally they hire a recognized person from TV or movies to read a script and repeat the disease acronym about fifty times. The sum total they want you to run to your doctor and ask for a prescription. In years past I never saw ads like that. It's pretty obvious that they are trying to push us away from cheaper generics and paying doctors and pharmacists a spif to move their product.
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I often wonder how the heck they come up with some of those drug names. How much you wanna bet, some people are going to name their children some of those names?! There's one called Latuda. Then there's Jolivette, Aranelle, Cryselle and Jolessa. Someone posted on Reddit that they know of people named Lyrica. Those are probably the least weird sounding ones.
 
Those names for drugs and what disease they are for are too much for me to watch and understand. I think one is for my kidney disease but one of the the side effect is death.:eek:

Government acronyms send me to Google if I do not know what they stand for and some are made up for name calling.
 
Rider77 said:
I've noticed that the pharmaceutical ads are much worse. They come up with the names of drugs that look like the shook up a cup of scrabble tiles then figure out how to say it. That's bad enough but then they name the disease that they cure by saying a long string of letters that really have no meaning unless you read the little bitty print that flashes up for two micro seconds.

Finally they hire a recognized person from TV or movies to read a script and repeat the disease acronym about fifty times. The sum total they want you to run to your doctor and ask for a prescription. In years past I never saw ads like that. It's pretty obvious that they are trying to push us away from cheaper generics and paying doctors and pharmacists a spif to move their product.
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In Canada, ads for medications are simple. They tell you the name of the drug, and say "see your Doctor for more information ". In Canada Doctors CANNOT sell medications to any one. They make a computer generated prescription on their office computer, and send it to your Pharmacy by fax. No hand written prescriptions, so no more guessing by the Pharmacist.

Seniors in my Province of Ontario, pay a flat rate of between $2 and $6 for a prescription. JIMB>
 
How did this thing get started anyway, with endless ads for drugs on TV? And they all have the obligatory "Ask your doctor." Right, just drop in or call your doctor as soon as you see a new drug advertised. Your doctor will be delighted to give you all the details.

When they give you those long lists of side effects, I always crack up when they get to "death." That is almost like a spoof of an ad!

They are selling pharmaceuticals as if they were laundry detergent. I think it should be illegal.
 
I just watched a couple of videos of people who didn't know that "The Affordable Care Act" was the very same thing as "Obamacare".

I think this happens because people have strong opinions about things they have only looked at, at a cursory level. :D
 
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Sunny said:
How did this thing get started anyway, with endless ads for drugs on TV? And they all have the obligatory "Ask your doctor." Right, just drop in or call your doctor as soon as you see a new drug advertised. Your doctor will be delighted to give you all the details.

When they give you those long lists of side effects, I always crack up when they get to "death." That is almost like a spoof of an ad!

They are selling pharmaceuticals as if they were laundry detergent. I think it should be illegal.
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my bold.

it is in Australia and I believe most countries.
 
Sunny said:
How did this thing get started anyway, with endless ads for drugs on TV? And they all have the obligatory "Ask your doctor." Right, just drop in or call your doctor as soon as you see a new drug advertised. Your doctor will be delighted to give you all the details.

When they give you those long lists of side effects, I always crack up when they get to "death." That is almost like a spoof of an ad!

They are selling pharmaceuticals as if they were laundry detergent. I think it should be illegal.
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So do I.
 
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