Typography
fromMail Online
1 week agoMost confusing text abbreviations - so, do you know what SYBAU mean?
Text abbreviations have evolved significantly since the 1990s, with many new acronyms confusing users today.
The TikTok video starts with Jess saying: "Female-to-male trans (people) and first time moms: y'all need to get together and decide who gets to keep the FTM acronym." She can hardly keep a straight face as she continues: "In my local neighbourhood giveaway group, this woman posted 'FTM: looking for boy clothes', and to be fair, she said 'boy'. That should have been my first clue."
Let's face it: we're all pressed for time. One way we economize on our use of that precious resource is acronyms, those handy abbreviations that use the first letters of a multi-word name or phrase. In everyday conversation, for example, when your car breaks down and you need a tow, you call AAA (pronounced triple A), not the American Automobile Association, and it's NASA, not the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, that sends astronauts into space.