IKIWIWWISI (Suzanne Forster)

Ikiwiwhat? I don’t have a clue what it means, either. Years ago, some practical joker signed off on an email to me with the above acronym, and I still haven’t figured out what it means. It’s been so many years I don’t remember who sent the email, but IKIWIWWISI has the distinction of being the acronym that inspired my Abolish Nebulous Acronyms List (ANAL). Sorry, couldn’t resist. Acronyms are addictive. (AAA).

Okay, I’ll stop, I promise!

The fascinating thing about acronyms is that they came into being to make life easier—and for the most part, they do. They’re shortcuts and anything that cuts down on keystrokes, especially when typing is your life as it is mine, should be a good thing. It’s not the helpful acronyms I want to abolish, just those pesky indecipherable ones. Like PYOP. What the heck does that mean???

Maybe it’s the dyslexia that I blogged about a few weeks ago, but I’m not the world’s fastest decipherer of strings of letters—or even single letters, in some cases. I can remember asking what (g) meant in my first chat room experience. I felt like the village idiot when I found out it was grin, but everybody was very nice about it. Possibly they were humoring me, but chat rooms were new, and I was assured I wasn’t the only one. Now, I know scads of acronyms and emoticons on sight, but at least once a week, I run into one I’ve never seen before. And the head-scratching begins.

Like NYLUYGT. Heavens, you could hurt yourself trying to figure that one out. I’m not even going to try. However, it may inspire me to come up with another list—some desperately needed rules for acronyms. RULE #1: To qualify as an acronym, the abbreviation cannot exceed six letters or digits. That would take care of Ikiwiwhat too.

Recently someone in my Yahoo group mentioned a website that’s a dictionary of acronyms, and I rushed right over there. It’s a great site, especially because that’s where I discovered what just might be the short version of IKIWIWWISI. Imagine my excitement! It’s IKIWISI, which means I’ll Know It When I See It. Aha! Let the head-scratching begin.

There are lots of other great abbreviations on the site too. Who knew that HC means Have Cats. Or that IBM means I Blame Microsoft. BANANA translates as Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anyone. And this one I love. BOHICA: Bend Over, Here It Comes Again.

How about CUOA: Compulsive Use of Acronyms.

Yeah, I know all about that one, lol.

With that I’ll say bfn and hagd!

Suz