Why is DB an acronym and not abbreviation?

Asked 28/8, 2009 at 5:2 Answered 28/8, 2009 at 6:3

According to the .NET framework design guidelines, they say DB is an acronym and cased as such. But I thought it was an abbreviation of database?

Bar answered 28/8, 2009 at 5:2 Comment(7)

It's definitely not an acronym. Acronyms are words you can pronouce, like LINQ or SOLID. – Regularly 28/8, 2009 at 5:9

Matt Hamilton's comment is incorrect - the ability to pronounce acronyms does make one. People just try to form them so they do for because it's a memorization technique. – Eclair 28/8, 2009 at 5:13

An abbreviation is any commonly recognized shortening of a word - acronyms are special cases of abbreviations. See en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abbreviation In any case, does it matter? – Thilda 28/8, 2009 at 5:35

@Charlie: the question is pretty terse but, based on the tags, I'm guessing squi is getting FxCop warnings for some class/variable that contains "Db" in it. Still, this may be the most pedantic question ever: DB -- acronym or abbreviation? – Luff 28/8, 2009 at 5:43

Technically Matt is correct. DB is an initialism. To qualify as an acronym it should be pronounceable as a word. "dee bee" is not a word so DB is not an acronym. However this is another case where popular misusage is overruling the dictionaries. In the process we are losing what can be a helpful distinction. – Superstar 28/8, 2009 at 6:29

Of acronyms, and initialisms: "There is no universal agreement on the precise definition of the various terms (see nomenclature), nor on written usage..." from: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acronym_and_initialism – Thilda 28/8, 2009 at 6:34

For a source on this question see the section Capitalization Rules for Acronyms in msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/vstudio/… where is says "A property named DBRate is an example of a short acronym (DB) used as the first word of a Pascal-cased identifier." – Arnelle 20/12, 2014 at 1:30

Originally it was "data base", then "data-base", and then just "database". You can see all three used in this paper and its citations. Reference 4 is to E.F. Codd's 1974 paper "Recent Investigations in Relational Data Base Systems", reference 2 is to Don Chamberlin's "Relational Data-Base Management Systems" (1976), while reference 1 is to a paper in the ACM Transactions on Database Systems.

You see this sort of progression in English as a new compound noun becomes familiar. Take a look at Google Books and type in "sky-scraper" to find century old references to the new type of building.

So actually DB is an acronym for the old "data base". (It's not a portmanteau, which is a blending of two or more words, eg, "smog" is a portmanteau of "smoke-and-fog".)

Spiky answered 28/8, 2009 at 6:3 Comment(2)

E.g. web page --> webpage – Keto 1/2, 2014 at 17:4

Thanks for the great info! Given that dictionaries like www.m-w.com now contain "database" but not "data base". That was probably already the when the .NET framework was being written, so they should have considered it an abbreviation of "database". Just still seems strange. – Arnelle 20/12, 2014 at 1:39

Database is a portmanteau of "data" and "base"; that makes "DB" to be an acronym because it is the first letter of each word involved (even if the words are written as a combined word).

An abbreviation is usually the first few letters of the word IE: "abbrev." is the abbreviated version of "abbreviation".

Eclair answered 28/8, 2009 at 5:10 Comment(5)

And "Mr" is an abbreviation of "Mrister"? :-) – Aspia 28/8, 2009 at 5:36

I prefer Esq. for "Esquire" myself :p – Eclair 28/8, 2009 at 5:38

Well, no, not really: a portmanteau is a blend of two or more words, like "brunch" for breakfast-lunch and "Tanzania" for Tanganyika and Zanzibar. – Spiky 28/8, 2009 at 6:7

@Jim: So "data base" > "data-base" > "database" isn't a blending of two+ words to you? – Eclair 28/8, 2009 at 6:11

@Rexem: It is, sort of, but to linguists "database" is an "endocentric compound" (I just learned that in en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compound_words! ;-). – Spiky 28/8, 2009 at 6:26

English is strange.

I think you'll find that 'data base' used to be two words, and slowly got merged over time, to one. The general process for merging words is

Data Base
Data-Base
Database

In regards to the API, I think it's sometimes inconsistent anyway, so I wouldn't be too concerned with specific definitions. My preference is to always uppercase acronyms.

Lobel answered 28/8, 2009 at 5:7 Comment(2)

I was reading some paperback (paper back?) thriller from, like, 1996 in the loo a while back and the main character kept talking about the "data base" this and the "data base" that. I couldn't keep reading. – Deane 28/8, 2009 at 5:24

electronic mail, e-mail, email – Empathize 12/11, 2009 at 19:21

-1

I would say abbreviation instead of acronym as database is one word. Interestingly DB is already very overused dictionary.

Majestic answered 28/8, 2009 at 5:5 Comment(0)

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