Did you know?
Did you know?
I was on the train a few weeks ago when I overheard a conversation between a man and woman sitting opposite me. They were talking about the time they were meant to meet up with a friend for dinner. The lady confirmed the time as 6p.m to which the man nodded. Suddenly the lady said, “Do you know what, even though we always refer to the time in terms of a.m. and p.m., I don’t really know what they stand for!” Thoughtfully, the man said, “ I don’t know either.” “I know it,” I felt like blurting out! Here I was smiling inside and saying to myself, “I know it, I know it! If only you would ask me, I would have shared the meaning with you”. My days of studying Geography at school flooded my memory and the answer came straight to me. I never really liked Geography as a subject but on this particular occasion I felt happy that it indeed taught me something that one or two people might not know! Whilst most people are aware that a.m. stands for the hours from midnight and noon and p.m. from noon and midnight but some may not know what the abbreviations really stand for. a.m. is a Latin abbreviation for ante meridiem which means before midday whilst p.m. is a Latin abbreviation for post meridiem which means after midday. Having reflected on this, I thought it might be useful to put together a short “Did you know” list of acronyms/abbreviations? Hope someone will find this helpful!
List of acronyms/abbreviations
BA/BSc
Bachelor of Arts/Science
EU
European union
BAME
Black African and minority ethnic
FY
Financial year
HE
Higher educaion
GPS
Global positioning system
IQ
Intelligent quotient
BC
Before Christ
BC
Blind copy (for emaliers)
CV
Curriculum Vitae
BMI
Body mass index
CEO
Chief executive officer
ATM
Automated teller machine
CCTV
Closed circuit television
DVD
Digital video disk
SCUBA
Self Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus
CD- ROM
Compact Disk – Read Only Memory
CPU
Central Processing Unit
Chatting acronyms
IDK
I Don’t Know
IAE
In Any Event
AKA
Also Known As
BBL
Be Back Later
IMHO
In My Humble Opinion
FYA
For Your Amusement
CUL8R
See You Later
BFN
Bye For Now
CU
See You
HB
Hug Back
BTW
By The Way
FWIW
For What It’s Worth
GBU
God Bless You
