"David J. Aronson" <dja2003(_at_)hotpop(_dot_)com> writes:
Anybody got an OED?
The OED defines "initialism" as "The use of initials; a significative
group of initial letters. Now spec. a group of initial letters used
as an abbreviation for a name or expression, each letter or part being
pronounced separately (contrasted with ACRONYM)". It references "1984
Word Ways, XVII. i. 48 The work consulted by Wolpow distinguishes
abbreviations and initialisms" -- maybe this is a good place to look
for further information.
"acronym" is "A word formed from the initial letters of other words".
But I doubt that this distinction is helpful in our field. Quite a
few initialisms are brutally acronymed by significant numbers of
speakers ("SQL", "SCSI", "ACL", "TCAM").