Hi, English isn’t my mother tongue so I was asking myself that question since I first encounted a w/… Back then I was like: “What tf does ‘w slash’ stand for?” And when I found out I was like “How, why, and is it any intuitive?” But I never dared to ask that until now

  • Square Singer@feddit.de
    1163·
    11 months ago

    All in all, the / is just one style of abbreviation used in English. It’s not only used for “with”, but also a few other words (w/o = without, N/A = not applicable).

    In German we abbreviate using a dot (e.g. “m.” = “mit” = "with). That’s not more or less intuitive, it’s just what you are used to.

    What’s kinda special with English is that there are multiple abbreviation styles. Off the top of my head I can think of six styles:

    • Abbreviate random parts of words using a slash: “N/A”, “w/”, “w/o”
    • Abbreviate keeping only the first letter of a word using a dot: “e.g.”
    • Abbreviate keeping the first and some random later consonants (and sometimes consonants that aren’t in the word at all) without using punctuation: Dr, Mr, Ms, Mrs
    • Abbreviate using acronyms and no punctuation: BBC
    • Abbreviate using acronyms and dots: B.C.
    • Abbreviate by substituting parts of the word with a single letter: Xmas (Christmas), Xing (Crossing)
    • candybrie@lemmy.world
      39·
      11 months ago

      I’m used to Dr., Mr., Mrs. all needing the dot.

      I’d also add the medical ones which all use x, and most use the first letter of the word, but not all, so it’s kinda point 3, kinda not:

      • Prescription: rx
      • Symptoms: sx
      • Diagnosis: dx
      • History: hx
      • Izzgo@kbin.social
        10·
        11 months ago

        I learned similar shorthand from an accountant, who wrote transfer (money transfer between accounts) as tx.

        Also, it used to be obligatory to put the dot on Mr., Mrs., Dr., etc. I’m old, I remember how it was taught. And we called those dots “periods”. I haven’t been in school in decades, but I’ve been noticing those dots disappearing.

    • sarchar@programming.devEnglish
      311·
      11 months ago

      In programmer lingo we’ll sometimes shorten words with the number of letters in between:

      i18n (internationalization) and L10n (localization). I just learned of g11n (globalization), too.

    • Rentlar@lemmy.ca
      11·
      11 months ago

      don’t forget using contractions on single words, like cont’d, pop’n (sometimes written popn)

    • Dandroid@dandroid.app
      5·
      11 months ago

      Bonus points for one of your examples being e.g. which stands for exempli gratia, translating to “for example”

      • Square Singer@feddit.de
        2·
        11 months ago

        Which is kinda weird in it self, because when abbreviating you not only change the words but even the language.

        Hardly anyone would ever write “exempli gratia” in a normal text, and “f.e.” would also not be understandible for most people.

        So in regular use, “e.g.” is practically the abbreviation for “for example”

        • Dandroid@dandroid.app
          3·
          11 months ago

          True, but we have lots of examples of that in English, to the point where I don’t think it’s that weird. e.g., i.e., b.c., a.d., etc., and so on. What’s even weirder to me is that we have sayings in English that use words that are otherwise not used anymore. “To and fro”, “lo and behold”, “eke out”, “inclement weather” (it’s hard to even find a definition of inclement because it’s only used to describe weather), “spick and span”, “days of yore”

          • Square Singer@feddit.de
            2·
            11 months ago

            In German, we too have words that only survived in specific versions. What’s really weird is that we have words like that, that died out, but a specific form survived, and then the word gets re-imported from another language with a slightly different meaning.

            Take for example “Rasse” (race) and “Rassismus” (racism).

            In German before WW1 the word “Rasse” was used to differentiate between the locals and the neighbouring “others”. So the usage was like “the German race”, “the French race”, “the English race”, “the Jewish race” and so on. After WW2 that word just about disappeared from the German language because it was used so heavily by the Nazis and also because it had no real meaning. They also used terms like “the Human race”. So race could be anything from “speaks another language but looks exactly like me” to “species”. It was almost exclusively (except for “the Human race”) used to dehumanize the others.

            But the term “Rassismus” survived and it’s meaning is about the same as xenophobia in English. Thus, if a white person from France hates everyone from Belgium, that’s racism.

            In the USA on the other hand, the word “race” was used to differentiate between the white population (which came from all over Europe) and the “others”, which in this case were Africans, Native Americans, Asians and South Americans. Like with the term “Rasse”, “race” was also used to dehumanize the others. And accordingly, “racism” only applies when someone hates people of another race by the USA definition. But unlike in German, the USA was never ruled by Nazis, and thus the word “race” was never discontinued.

            And now the English word “race” is getting re-imported to the German language, but with the US meaning, because there is no German meaning left.

            So right now in the German language, “Rasse” means Black, White, Asian, …, while “Rassismus” can totally be against someone who is of the same “Rasse” but speaks another language or is from another country.

    • ValiantDust@feddit.de
      5·
      11 months ago

      Abbreviate keeping the first and some random later consonants (and sometimes consonants that aren’t in the word at all) without using punctuation: Dr, Mr, Ms, Mrs

      I think it’s usually the first letter(s) and the last letter(s). In older English handwritings I’ve come across M.ʳ etc. So I think that’s were those came from.

    • Retiring@lemmy.ml
      14·
      11 months ago

      m. is not a German abbreviation for mit, afaik. I never once read that. Where did you get that from?

      • Klear@lemmy.world
        312·
        11 months ago

        Wikipedia at least sees initialisms as a type of acronyms. But even if it didn’t, your comment would still be unhelpful pedantry.

              • kase@lemmy.world
                1·
                11 months ago

                Is that why people sometimes say “O.K.”? I always assumed it was just a grammar mistake. The more you know lol

                • seitanic@lemmy.sdf.org
                  3·
                  11 months ago

                  Yeah, “O.K.” came first, “okay” was later. It has a weird history. According to the American Heritage Dictionary:

                  During the 1830s there was a humoristic fashion in Boston newspapers to reduce a phrase to initials and supply an explanation in parentheses. Sometimes the abbreviations were misspelled to add to the humor. OK was used in March 1839 as an abbreviation for all correct, the joke being that neither the O nor the K was correct. Originally spelled with periods, this term outlived most similar abbreviations owing to its use in President Martin Van Buren’s 1840 campaign for reelection. Because he was born in Kinderhook, New York, Van Buren was nicknamed Old Kinderhook, and the abbreviation proved eminently suitable for political slogans.

        • ijeff@lemdro.idEnglish
          11·
          11 months ago

          I’m not the person you were replying to, but the source linked on the wiki for that statement actually refers to them as being distinct.