On Fri, 1 Dec 2006 13:01:05 -0700, Howard Brazee <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>... >Occasionally we will mistake the last letter of an acronym ending with >"S" as a plural, which grates on my ears almost as much as "Enter your >PIN number to the ATM machine". I haven't yet heard anybody say >"CICS are...". Words change over time. There used to be a legume called the "pease" in English. But that sounded plural so people started using as such. And a word means what people think it means, so that legume is now the "pea". That was long before acronyms were common (if they existed at all). I suspect "PIN" is well on it's way to becoming "pin" with a definition something like "A password consisting of digits". >... >But if we are writing user documentation - should we say "PIN Number" >irritating some customers, or "PIN", confusing others? >... You could write "Personal Identifcation Number (PIN)". Pat O'Keefe ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html
