The 411 on Numeronyms

The 411 on Numeronyms The 411 on Numeronyms The 411 on Numeronyms By Mark Nichol Numerals are often used in numeronyms: in combination with other numerals and with letters to represent a word, phrase, or concept. This post loosens the definition of numeronym to also include a numeral without one or more accompanying letters and with or without other symbols. Ordinal numbers can represent something, as when we speak, for example, of a â€Å"third† in reference to an additional person who joins two people or when we refer, for example, to â€Å"the 25th† to denote a certain day of the month, but the following terms, which include cardinal numbers, represent more than the sum of their parts, too. The number 101, used in combination with a word representing a topic, is used to imply that a piece of knowledge under discussion is elementary, as if it were equivalent to the content of an introductory college course. (Such courses are often numbered 101 in a three-digit designation system.) For example, the principle of supply and demand might be said to be â€Å"Economics 101,† meaning it is easy to understand. A 180 is a half turn and a 360 is a full turn, representing the number of degrees in a circle; numbers larger than 360 may appear in reference to sports such as skating or diving in which participants may turn more than one full revolution; 180 may also refer figuratively to someone reversing one’s position on an issue. The abbreviations WWI and WWII stand for â€Å"World War I† and â€Å"World War II† (and there is also the hypothetical World War III, or WWIII); they are sometimes represented with Arabic numerals, though Roman numerals are the conventional treatment. Y2K is an abbreviation for â€Å"year 2000,† pertaining to the (largely unfounded) concern late in the twentieth century that a fundamental programming flaw would, at the turn of the century, cause catastrophic breakdowns in information processing, leading to serious repercussions throughout the civilized world. Another term stemming from business is 24/7, referring to the number of hours in a day and the number of days in a week to denote incessant attention to something. (The term is also extended to 24/7/365 to refer to the number of days in the year as well.) Guns are often referred to simply by their caliber: for example, .22, .357, and .45 refer to the diameter of the bullets used in a particular firearm. 3D is an abbreviation for â€Å"three-dimensional,† pertaining to images and films with this feature. Abbreviations for television programs include TW3 for That Was the Week That Was, a satirical comedy program on the United Kingdom’s BBC network during the early 1960s, and MST3K for Mystery Science Theater 3000, a late-twentieth-century American program that poked fun at mediocre low-budget films. Meanwhile W3 is an abbreviation for â€Å"World Wide Web,† which is now generally abbreviated to web. To get the 411 on something is to obtain information; 411 is the telephone number for directory assistance, which provides phone numbers for people who want to contact a person or an organization but do not have the entity’s number. (This number is sometimes styled 4-1-1.) Telephone area codes are often employed as shorthand to refer to geographical regions, as in the use of â€Å"the 415† to represent San Francisco and its environs. 401(k) refers to a specific pension account defined in that section of the Internal Revenue Service tax code. Similarly, a tax-exempt nonprofit organization is referred to as a 501(c)(3), a label that pertains to the corresponding section of the IRS tax code. 5K, 10K, and so on are abbreviations referring to footraces of 5,000 and 10,000 meters, respectively, as well as longer events; K stands for kilo-, a prefix meaning â€Å"one thousand.† Shorter races held on tracks (and swim events) may be called, for example, â€Å"the 400,† referring to a 400-meter dash or another race of that length. Text-speak takes advantage of numeronyms to reduce the number of characters necessary to express a word: Gr8, for example, represents great, and l8r is equivalent to later. Related usage includes computer terms that are abbreviated, for example, from localization to l10n. (The numeronym consists of the first and last letters of the word interrupted by a number representing how many intervening letters are missing.) A similar system is leetspeak (leet derives from elite to acknowledge that those who know the system are privileged to do so in comparison to the ignorant masses), in which numerals replace similarly shaped letters, such as in n00b, which represents a misspelling and abbreviation of newbie (meaning â€Å"novice†). G8 and G20 refer to international political forums consisting of the respective number of participant nations; G stands for group in designations such as â€Å"Group of 8.† K9 is an abbreviation for canine because it is pronounced the same as the word for dogs and other doglike animals; it is employed in the context of dogs used in law enforcement. Also pertaining to law enforcement is the ten-code, a system of numerical codes beginning with 10 that represent words and ideas; the most familiar to laypeople is 10-4, meaning â€Å"understood.† Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Spelling category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Has vs. Had7 Tips for Writing a Film Review5 Keys to Better Sentence Flow

How Non-Profit Content Marketing Became a Year-Long Internal Win

How Non-Profit Content Marketing Became a Year-Long Internal Win We usually look at blogging and content marketing as an external benefit. It brings in traffic, creates our platform, establishes our expertise, and hopefully generates leads. But we cant forget: blogging is  for the writer  as much as it is for the reader. I hadnt considered how that would also apply to a team, and not just the individual. I was surprised to learn how non-profit content marketing could benefit an organization internally. I spoke with Scott from the North Dakota Interagency Program for Assistive Technology  (NDIPAT), a non-profit organization that matches people with disabilities with technology that can help them live life independently. Recently, their entire team took on the challenge of executing a content marketing plan for a year. How did that year turn out? I sat down with him and asked him about their journey, and their progress. Julie: Was it difficult to get your team to blog? Scott: Not really. We all knew the importance of blogging. Plus wed been doing a newsletter for a long time – bi-monthly over ten years – so this was a natural transition for us. Blogging lets us get more content out more regularly. The biggest challenge is that we have five bloggers spread out in two geographic locations. We dont really have a difficult time coming up with ideas. Narrowing down ideas is where its hard. Were trying to get the right content mix for the blog. Julie: What have you seen happen with your team as you worked on blogging together? Scott: From our standpoint, blogging provides a way for us to research topics, and understand things better.  It gives us an internal resource to go back to for reference. One person does the work of researching and writing a post, and we all benefit from it. Our entire team is building a great resource to use. Our blog is right up at the top, now. Weve been holding steady with our content. Julie: What are the success youre seeing from your blogging? Scott: There have been several instances of people contacting us about something they read on our blog, saying that they didnt know there was a solution for them until they read our blog posts. People have also called us and asked us questions based on blog posts. Were being more proactive as far as assistive technology within the state, in terms of how were blogging. One state does a podcast that they are known for, but their blogging is lessening. Our blog is right up at the top, now. Weve been holding steady with our content. SEO is important, too, and consistently our blog posts are up at the top on general key terms in the assistive technology field. Hitting the first or second page within a few days of a post going live is a big deal, I think. It means Google is coming back often if its appearing that soon. Hitting the first or second page within a few days of a post going live is a big deal. Julie: Do you ever consider not blogging any more? Scott: Weve never thought about stopping blogging, though weve changed our frequency, from three posts to two posts per week, due to staff changes. I dont know if well go back to three, but weve never considered ending our blogging. Its not an option. When we started, we were going to do a year for sure, and now that weve done that, and written over 100 posts, were going to keep going. Its just too valuable to stop, especially internally. It really is. Its almost like continuing education for you and your staff. Each writer has to do the research and writing, and then let the rest of staff read it. Its a professional growth piece for our staff, each time they write a blog post. With our field the way it is, our research happens online. Thats where the information is at, and its vast–no one has the same disability and needs. Individuals are unique, so finding a solution is unique. Thats why finding information and being able to share it is important. We can cover topics from so many angles for a larger audience.