Knowing their fret affects little, old editors gripe about lapses of diction anyway. They cannot help it. When language falls victim to the unknowing, careless, or lazy, they react. Although the reaction does little good, griping about trifles can be fun.
Does anyone other than this editor cringe over the ubiquitous phrase “frequently asked questions?” Does no one else see the redundancy? No matter. The phrase simply helps with transition to matters of graver concern.
Not a word
More often encountered nowadays than “frequently asked questions” is the shortened version, “FAQ,” which the unknowing, careless, or lazy might call an acronym. It is, in fact, an abbreviation, which is not the same thing.
“FAQ” could be an acronym if it were used as a word rather than a string of initials. At least in this old editor’s experience, it is not. In speech, “FAQ” is rendered “F-A-Q,” not pronounced to sound like “fack.” It is not, therefore, used as a word. It cannot, therefore, be an acronym.
Alas, modern usage, under siege from the unknowing, careless, or lazy, treats “acronym” as synonymous with “abbreviation.” The mistake glows in this observation about the new trade agreement among the US, Canada, and Mexico from a think-tank populated by scholars no doubt knowledgeable, meticulous, and energetic: “The United States Trade Representative press release announcing the new deal referred to it as USMCA, an acronym for US-Mexico-Canada Agreement. This is, obviously, a terrible, unpronounceable name.”
If the assembly of letters is unpronounceable, it cannot perform as a word. It therefore cannot be an acronym. Abbreviation? Yes. Acronym? No.
The abbreviation for the agreement replaced by the USMCA is, by contrast, an acronym. The first letters of the North American Free Trade Agreement do form a pronounceable group of letters routinely used as a word: NAFTA.
The name change has inspired speculation about the influence of politics, US President Donald Trump having promised to renegotiate NAFTA and having turned the acronym into a term of disparagement—“the worst trade deal ever,” and all that. No such speculation will be proffered here, given that matters more relevant to the oil and gas business demand attention.
For the names of oil and gas professional associations, three categories of abbreviation suggest themselves.
The first comprises associations whose abbreviations clearly are acronyms. Here, the Texas Independent Producers & Royalty Owners Association holds strong ground. The acronym TIPRO (TIP-row) is more than a word; it’s a brand. So are NOIA (NOY-ya) and INGAA (ING-uh) for National Ocean Industries Association and Interstate Natural Gas Association of America.
A second category includes organizations with pronounceable abbreviations never used as words and therefore not genuinely acronyms. No one, for example, refers to the American Petroleum Institute—well known as A-P-I—as AY-pee or AH-pee, although the abbreviation is pronounceable. The same can be said for the Independent Petroleum Association of America. EYE-pah just doesn’t work. For the same reason that IPAA will remain I-P-A-A or I-P-double-A, the American Association of Drilling Engineers will remain A-A-D-E. Or at least one hopes.
Another drilling group, the International Association of Drilling Contractors, illustrates the third category of associations with initials wholly unpronounceable, never accurately called acronyms. Into this category falls an important association with an interesting history with abbreviations. Some years back, the National Petroleum Refiners Association changed names without changing the abbreviation—not acronym!—becoming National Petrochemical & Refiners Association. And about when journalists and others who are supposed to keep these things straight began getting the name right with reasonable consistency, the group changed again to a name with another abbreviation-but-not-acronym: AFPM. That name is, of course, American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers.
Potential acronym
Sometimes, though, editors who survived all this forget what AFPM stands for and just say “the old NPRA,” which has potential as an acronym—TONPRA, (TON-prah). This is merely an observation, not a suggestion that AFPM change names again.
Old editors are easily confused.
About the Author
Bob Tippee
Editor
Bob Tippee has been chief editor of Oil & Gas Journal since January 1999 and a member of the Journal staff since October 1977. Before joining the magazine, he worked as a reporter at the Tulsa World and served for four years as an officer in the US Air Force. A native of St. Louis, he holds a degree in journalism from the University of Tulsa.