Acronyms 3: Abbreviations

https://www.reddit.com/r/EncyclopaediaOfReddit/comments/12nudlu/acronyms_3_abbreviations/

created by EncyclopaediaBot on 16/04/2023 at 04:00 UTC*

18 upvotes, 0 top-level comments (showing 0)

An Acronym is a word comprised of the first initials of the words in a phrase or saying. They are generally created to shorten long phrases and speed up communication, much like abbreviations and initialisms[1].

1: https://www.rd.com/article/acronym-vs-abbreviation-whats-the-difference/

Reddit has a worldwide readership, but because the majority are from the US, you’ll often see abbreviations and other terms that might be unfamiliar to those of us in the rest of the world, so here is my attempt in translating some of the common ones.

*US State and Territory Abbreviations**

Many animal, reptile or insect identification subreddits will require a location in each submission, so the following list will hopefully help you with the various two-letter US State abbreviations that are often used:

┌──────────────┬──────────────────────────┐
│ Abbreviation │          State           │
╞══════════════╪══════════════════════════╡
│ AL           │ Alabama                  │
├──────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ AK           │ Alaska                   │
├──────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ AZ           │ Arizona                  │
├──────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ AR           │ Arkansas                 │
��──────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ AS           │ American Samoa           │
├──────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ CA           │ California               │
├──────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ CO           │ Colorado                 │
├──────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ CT           │ Connecticut              │
├──────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ DE           │ Delaware                 │
├──────────────┼───────────────────────��──┤
│ DC           │ District of Columbia     │
├──────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ FL           │ Florida                  │
├──────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ GA           │ Georgia                  │
├──────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ GU           │ Guam                     │
├──────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ HI           │ Hawaii                   │
├──────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ ID           │ Idaho                    │
├──────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ IL           │ Illinois                 │
├──────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ IN           │ Indiana                  │
├──────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ IA           │ Iowa                     │
├──────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ KS           │ Kansas                   │
├──────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ KY           │ Kentucky                 │
├──────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ LA           │ Louisiana                │
├──────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ ME           │ Maine                    │
├──────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ MD           │ Maryland                 │
├──────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ MA           │ Massachusetts            │
├──────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ MI           │ Michigan                 │
├──────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ MN           │ Minnesota                │
├──────────────┼───────────────────���──────┤
│ MS           │ Mississippi              │
├──────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ MO           │ Missouri                 │
├──────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ MT           │ Montana                  │
├──────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ NE           │ Nebraska                 │
├──────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ NV           │ Nevada                   │
├──────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ NH           │ New Hampshire            │
├────────────��─┼──────────────────────────┤
│ NJ           │ New Jersey               │
├──────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ NM           │ New Mexico               │
├──────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ NY           │ New York (State)         │
├──────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ NC           │ North Carolina           │
├──────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ ND           │ North Dakota             │
├──────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ MP           │ Northern Mariana Islands │
├──────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ OH           │ Ohio                     │
├──────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ OK           │ Oklahoma                 │
├──────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ OR           │ Oregon                   │
├──────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ PA           │ Pennsylvania             │
├──────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ PR           │ Puerto Rico              │
├──────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ RI           │ Rhode Island             │
├──────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ SC           │ South Carolina           │
├──────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ SD           │ South Dakota             │
├──────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ TN           │ Tennessee                │
├──────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ TX           │ Texas                    │
├──────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ TT           │ Trust Territories        │
├────────���─────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ UT           │ Utah                     │
├──────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ VT           │ Vermont                  │
├──────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ VA           │ Virginia                 │
├──────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ VI           │ Virgin Islands           │
├──────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ WA           │ Washington (State)       │
├──────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ WV           │ West Virginia            │
├──────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ WI           │ Wisconsin                │
├──────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ WY           │ Wyoming                  │
└──────────────┴──────────────────────────┘

Notes:

Continental United States: The 49 States (including Alaska, excluding Hawaii) located on the continent of North America, and the District of Columbia.
United States: The 50 States and the District of Columbia.
51st State: Puerto Rico is defined as “territory 'foreign in a domestic sense',” meaning it is neither part of the federation that makes up the US nor a sovereign entity.
A far more detailed list can be found here[2], and some of the above information came from here[3] as well as from here[4].

*Plant Hardiness Zones**

2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._state_and_territory_abbreviations

3: https://www.usgs.gov/faqs/what-constitutes-united-states-what-are-official-definitions

4: https://www.historytoday.com/archive/behind-times/51st-state

There are some subreddits where abbreviations are used for other types of geographic locations. Many of the gardening and plant identification and help subreddits require a plant hardiness/climate zone[5] on each submission to be able to give proper advice, where you’ll see abbreviations such as “Northern Alberta, Canada 2B/3A” or “PNW - Zone 7B/8A”.

5: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hardiness_zone

The original and most widely used system was developed by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), and subsequently, similar hardiness rating schemes have been developed for other countries and regions. To help you understand the abbreviations and/or locate the appropriate zone, here’s a list of resources:

An interactive map of worldwide plant hardiness zones[6]
A hardiness zone map for edible landscaping[7]

*Time Zones**

6: https://www.plantmaps.com/index.php

7: https://archive.is/3btSl

A time zone is an area which observes a uniform standard time for legal, commercial and social purposes. Time zones tend to follow the boundaries between countries and their subdivisions instead of strictly following longitude, because it is convenient for areas in frequent communication to keep the same time. The standard for all time zones is Coordinated Universal Time, known as UTC[8].

8: https://www.utctime.net/

Here’s a list of some of the more commonly used time zone abbreviations, and I’m going to rely on Wikipedia[9] for their respective coverage and definitions as they also have maps of the geographical areas they cover:

9: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_time_zones_by_country

AEST - Australian Eastern Standard Time[10]. Australia uses three main time zones: AEST: Australian Eastern Standard Time (UTC+10:00), ACST: Australian Central Standard Time (UTC+09:30) and AWST: Australian Western Standard Time (UTC+08:00).
BST - British Summer Time[11]. Only used between the months of March and October.
CET - Central European Time[12]
CEST - Central European Summer Time[13]. Also known as CEDT (Central European Daylight Time). Only used between the months of March and October.
CST - China Standard Time[14]
DST - Daylight Saving Time[15]
EDT - Eastern Daylight Time[16]. Only used between the months of March and October.
EST - Eastern Standard Time[17]. Sometimes known as ET.
GMT - Greenwich Mean Time[18]
GST - Gulf Standard Time[19]
IST - Indian Standard Time[20]
IST - Irish Standard Time[21]
IST - Israel Standard Time[22]
JST - Japan Standard Time[23]
MSK - Moscow Time[24]
PDT - Pacific Daylight Time[25]
UTC - Coordinated Universal Time[26]

There is a much more comprehensive list of Worldwide time zone abbreviations here[27], and here’s a list of some useful online time zone converters:

10: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_in_Australia

11: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Summer_Time

12: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_European_Time

13: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_European_Summer_Time

14: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_in_China

15: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daylight_saving_time

16: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Time_Zone

17: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Time_Zone

18: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenwich_Mean_Time

19: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UTC%2B04:00

20: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Standard_Time

21: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_in_the_Republic_of_Ireland

22: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel_Standard_Time

23: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japan_Standard_Time

24: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moscow_Time

25: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Time_Zone

26: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UTC%2B00:00

27: https://www.timeanddate.com/time/zones/

https://www.worldtimebuddy.com[28]
https://time.is/compare[29]
https://dateful.com/eventlink[30]
https://greenwichmeantime.com/gmt-converter/time-zones/[31]
https://24timezones.com/difference[32]

*School Years**

28: https://www.worldtimebuddy.com

29: https://time.is/compare

30: https://dateful.com/eventlink

31: https://greenwichmeantime.com/gmt-converter/time-zones/

32: https://24timezones.com/difference

American and British school years have very different measurements, as does much of the rest of the world. I’m going to try to give some of the equivalent terms and age groups below, based on information from https://www.gov.uk/education[33] and https://www.ed.gov/category/subject/standards[34]

33: https://www.gov.uk/education

34: https://www.ed.gov/category/subject/standards

┌───────────┬────────────────┬────────────────┬────────────────┬───────────────┐
│ Age Group │ US Terminology │    US Stage    │ UK Terminology │   UK Stage    │
╞═══════════╪════════════════╪════════════════╪════════════════╪═══════════════╡
│           │                │ Early          │                │ Early Years   │
│ 3 - 4     │ Preschool      │ Childhood      │ Nursery        │ Foundation    │
│           │                │                │                │ Stage         │
├───────────┼────────────────┼────────────────┼────────────────┼───────────────┤
│ 5 - 6     │ Kindergarten   │ Lower School   │ Year 1         │ Key Stage 1   │
├───────────┼────────────────┼────────────────┼────────────────┼───────────────┤
│ 7 - 8     │ 2nd Grade      │                │ Year 3         │ Key Stage 2   │
├───────────┼────────────��───┼────────────────┼────────────────┼───────────────┤
│ 11 - 12   │ 6th Grade      │ Middle School  │ Year 7         │ Key Stage 3   │
├───────────┼────────────────┼────────────────┼────────────────┼───────────────┤
│ 14 - 15   │ 9th Grade      │ High School    │ Year 10        │ Key Stage 4   │
│           │ (Freshman)     │                │                │ (GCSE)        │
├───────────┼────────────────┼────────────────┼────────────────┼───────────────┤
│ 16 - 17   │ 11th Grade     │                │ Year 12 (Lower │ A Levels      │
��           │ (Junior)       │                │ 6th)           │               │
└───────────┴────────────────┴────────────────┴────────────────┴───────────────┘

Those of us of a certain age in the UK remember a different system. To make me really feel old, my school years are now regarded as historical[35].

35: https://www.historic-uk.com/CultureUK/Schooldays-in-the-1950s-1960s/

*See Also:**

Acronyms 1: A-L[36]
Acronyms 2: M-Z[37]
Jargon[38]
Other Useful Dictionaries, Encyclopaedias and Lexicons[39]
Relationship Sub Acronyms and Initialisms[40]
Time Zones[41]
Tone Indicators[42]

Comments

There's nothing here!