Acronyms and Abbreviations

Today I want to ramble a bit about Acronyms. Quite often any abbreviation is referred to as an Acronym. Acronym sounds so learned. Abbreviation is so basic. Just about anybody knows what it means. But wait! Acronym is only applicable to an abbreviation that is read as a word. It is that simple and straightforward. Radio Detection And Ranging is abbreviated to RADAR and is read as spelt. So it is an acronymn. So is QANTAS (Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services). But not BBC, 4U2C, HRC, ABC, and so on and so on. Over here is Malaysia we have quite a few political parties. Among the well known ones, MCA, MIC, DAP and PKR are all abbreviations. UMNO and PAS are acronyms.

The word "strangle"

I have often come across the phrase "strangled to death" in newspapers especially here in Malaysia. It is my contention that when a person is "strangled" he is already dead. Just as when a person is murdered, executed, electrocuted, killed, assassinated, drowned or hanged he is DEAD. Pointing this out to the editor of an English Improvement section of one particular newspaper that the phrase is a redunduncy in proper English, prompted a very clever reply from him that the usage is correct. He argued that if it was mentioned somewhere earlier in an article that the said person is already dead, than subsequent sentences with only "strangled" would suffice and imply that he was dead. Otherwise, to indicate that the person has died, the phrase "strangled to death" should be used. It was quite laughable.

Certainly, "strangle" is linked to words like "choke" and "squeeze". Quoting the Concise Oxford Dictionary, "Choke" is "to hinder of impede the breathing of a person by constricting the windpipe of ". However, "strangle" is "to squeeze the windpipe or neck so as TO KILL". So it is correct to say that a person was "choked to death". But NOT "strangled to death".

Similarly, a person may be beaten to death, burnt to death, hacked to death, mangled to death, or mauled to death.

Your comments are welcomed.

Hai, I'm James from Kuala Lumpur Malaysia. I do not claim to be a linguist or an English Language expert. With the proliferation of incorrect and bad English usage, I started this blog today and I hope to expand it as soon as possible.