Most abbreviations are unneeded and overused. amirite?

I work in the medical field where there are abbreviations for everything. Some of the words are like a dozen syllables long so sometimes it's just easier to abbreve.

by Accomplished-Buy 10 hours ago

That's probably NOT what the OP is referring to. (Healthcare 30+ years here.)

by madielesch 10 hours ago

Ok THAT's acceptable

by Anonymous 10 hours ago

I used to work in kitchens and we had a guy redo all our recipes and he abbreviated "cups" to "CPS". So 1/2 cup became 1/2 CPS, and so on. I asked him how much time he saved by not hitting that pesky U key. He did not find it as funny as I did

by Abbigail45 9 hours ago

Lol. Isn't the normal abbreviation just "c" anyway?

by Anonymous 9 hours ago

Merchant sailor here, we do the same thing. Forecastle being f'c'sle is a classic favorite. It's also fun to watch people's eyes glaze over as I talk about the IMO's STCW BSTs.

by LowCaramel3571 9 hours ago

Not being shady but it's probably etymology not entomology. Don't want someone looking them up and being shocked by bugs

by Darian67 9 hours ago

THANK YOU!!! I did not realize I typed it wrong. Not shady at all great catch on that 😂😂😂

by Anonymous 8 hours ago

For me it's weird that it's even a gen z thing, unless it's just meant to be cool and trendy. You pretty much all grew up in the era of high speed internet and smart phones. There is no practical reason to have full conversations in abbreviations.

by Leopoldoterry 8 hours ago

We aren't having full conversation In Abbreviations? Majority of people type normal with the abbreviations interspersed in the conversation. For example: -I haven't eaten yet today bcuz work was hectic. oml that was so embarrassing idrk if I even want to go out anymore, it's way to cold rn. Do you think we talk like H. WYDT? TC. IJC, TYFA. Or am I misunderstanding what you meant by full conversations? 😂

by Anonymous 8 hours ago

I am exaggerating when I say full conversations, but the use of abbreviations has gone way up as the ability to type on devices has vastly improved. If you've seen non smart phone texting you should know exactly what I mean. Each number is assigned 3 letters and you tap the same number until it gets to the letter you want. Doing that, it makes perfect sense why people wouldn't want to spend 5 minutes to say like 4 words, yet people abbreviated less back then.

by Leopoldoterry 7 hours ago

That is very very very confusing and interesting when you put it that way. I think it may have to due with " the principal of least effort " in which we as humans strive to make/take paths with the least effort / action required. Etymology nerd has a video w linguistics that somewhat has explained this phenomena! But yea so interesting, as we evolved from more laborious forms of communication, it seems we equally have evolved to put less effort in, despite the convenience and ease of communication being at its pinnacle.

by Anonymous 7 hours ago

twt mmw to rofl lmaooooo 😭✌️🥀

by Francescomoriss 7 hours ago

sybau

by Anonymous 6 hours ago

ts pmo sm fr bro 😭😭🥀🥀💀💀

by Fleta80 6 hours ago

vro*

by Anonymous 6 hours ago

IDK

by Fresh_Fix 5 hours ago

I dunno what that means

by Anonymous 5 hours ago

Fr

by esther26 5 hours ago

WTH

by grimescleora 4 hours ago

why did I laugh

by Anonymous 4 hours ago

dangit I should've said lol

by Anonymous 4 hours ago

lmao

by Anonymous 4 hours ago

Lmaooooooo

by Low-Cartographer 4 hours ago

Rofl

by Anonymous 4 hours ago

Why are you using so many contractions? Does it really take that long to type out "you are", "it is", or "do not"? Are you a bad typer or are you just trying to fit in a character limit?

by LowCaramel3571 4 hours ago

For what is it worth. I agree with you. Everyone knows what these abbreviations mean. Also it's a little fun to say wyd rn instead of what are you doing right now.

by bruenmuhammad 3 hours ago

That's not the same. Contractions make sense when it comes to typing and writing things out by hand. Ur instead of your is just stupid though.

by Leopoldoterry 3 hours ago

One is legible. No English speaker wouldn't understand you're, it's or don't. If I just sent you Ur, you might mistake it for a typo or a weird sound I was trying to describe because phonetically that doesn't even make the same sound as your.

by Leopoldoterry 3 hours ago

Oh come on, no English speaker would misunderstand "ur" in a text message. It's grandfathered in from the days of texting on a numberpad, everybody understands it.

by LowCaramel3571 2 hours ago

It isn't though. It's a fairly recent thing. Stuff like OMG and LOL has been around pretty long, but I think they are only commonly used because of emojis. Ur is just random and abbreviating for the sake of abbreviating.

by Leopoldoterry 2 hours ago

Ur has been used just as long as OMG and LOL. As mentioned, we used them all the time on numberpad texting phones as your or you're really was a lot more time consuming than ur on those texting methods.

by LowCaramel3571 2 hours ago

all abbreviations exist for the sake of abbreviating. we abbreviate because it's shorter, no other reason. you're just comfortable with the ones you're used to and calling ones you're not used to dumb.

by Alternative-Bug-8737 2 hours ago

You could literally have made up abbreviations for everything you just said, but you didn't because it makes more sense to use your words and say exactly what you want to say. "Ol abrviatns exst fr the ske of abrviatns" Would just be plain dumb.

by Leopoldoterry 2 hours ago

that's only dumb bc nobody would know what i'm talking about. but op isn't getting mad at individuals making up bespoke abbreviations, it's groups of people. so when i type "rn" or "ur" or "bc" (or "op", for that matter), enough of my audience will understand bc those are commonly used. communication is the goal, but just because you, specifically, don't understand something doesn't mean it's a failure of communication. someone else was properly communicated to

by Alternative-Bug-8737 1 hour ago

Those have precedent in speech and are almost universally known. There's no risk of someone not being able to understand them.

by Anonymous 1 hour ago

People seem to understand omg and lol just fine. I have never once seen them cause a miscommunication.

by LowCaramel3571 1 hour ago

you know that language isn't static? there was once a time when no one would know what "gonna" meant, and there is a time (now) when very few people are confused by "ur"

by Alternative-Bug-8737 52 minutes ago

I guess my flair is right then. I just kinda think that to most people, avoiding contractions sounds like bad english

by Anonymous 44 minutes ago

Dude all of this is flying right over your head jfc

by RegularDefinition 35 minutes ago

Someone hasnt had to use T9 and it shows

by Anonymous 7 minutes ago

hey, pressing a key two more times isn't hard! But no, I didn't use it much

by Anonymous 6 minutes ago