ABC & short form words

Dear Readers

I find that short form is really fascinating! One short form to you may mean something different to others! Is there a guideline to the universally accepted short forms? Who created them and who approved them?

I am sure many of us are familiar with OMG, LOL, BRB, TBC, FOC, GTG, FYI, ASAP, RSVP, RIP, BTW, hopefully we share the same understanding of their meanings.

Let us take a look at ABC. The original short form of ABC that I know is purely the alphabet ABC when we teach our children the 26 alphabets of English language, usually A for apple, B for bus, C for car.. and so on. In Malaysia restaurants, ABC is best known as ais kacang, air batu campur.

In cognitive behavior psychology, ABC stands for Activating event, Beliefs about activating event and Consequences. It is used to analyze a situation and change our thinking without trying to change the external reality such that we can develop new, rational beliefs, thoughts and feelings.

I am pretty sure ABC will carry different meanings in other studies. Do share your ABC with me if you have.

There are yet many other short forms that are found in this contemporary society, they are used in emails, smses, chats etc. You may have come across MBF, MBA, PHD, WTF, WTH, IDK, ACT, FML, ROFL, LMAO, LMFAO, FTW, STFU, 88, DILLIC, DILLIK, LCLY, BFF MSG, IMO, ABT, WRT, NP, TYVM, MTV, HBU, TTYL........ well, I do not get the meaning of all of them as some of them were obtained during brainstorming session with my children.

And today I received a mail from a friend having this short form ABCDEFG and ABCDEFGHIJK, I am sure with the speed how mails are moving about, you can already guess the meaning of them!