I thought that acronyms took over in my lifetime. Is that true? Or is it just a feeling? I saw a post on the U.S. President and didn't know about POTUS - acronym for President of the United States.
OTUS is the shortened version the phrase 'of the United States". OTUS began life in the late 19th century. It began as an abbreviation used by telegraphic doe operators in the 1890s. The earliest recorded use was in 1879.
But shortened words, abbreviations and acronyms didn't start in our time at all. On the first page of the Anglo-Saxon manuscript of Beowulf is something similar. "The symbol in the middle of the lower red square is an abbreviated form of ‘þæt’, pronounced ‘that’ (the first letter, ‘þ’ is a rune called thorn, pronounced ‘th’), meaning ‘that’ (see how little our language has changed in over a thousand years!). This little symbol is seen everywhere, all over Old English manuscripts, and is no different from the modern texting conventions of @ for ‘at’, or U for you, or 2 for to/too, or 4 for… well".
Here are the top 10 text-speak spellings from Britain:
After – Rfd Tonight – 2nite Great – Gr8 Before – B4 Tomorrow – 2moro Cool – kwl Mate – M8 Pizza – Peetsa True – Churoo That – Dat
I was able to find a Christmas text greeting:
We complete with our photo of the day - variations on a theme of Christmas red.
