Hi, English isn’t my mother tongue so I was asking myself that question since I first encounted a w/… Back then I was like: “What tf does ‘w slash’ stand for?” And when I found out I was like “How, why, and is it any intuitive?” But I never dared to ask that until now

  • Square Singer@feddit.de
    0·
    1 year ago

    All in all, the / is just one style of abbreviation used in English. It’s not only used for “with”, but also a few other words (w/o = without, N/A = not applicable).

    In German we abbreviate using a dot (e.g. “m.” = “mit” = "with). That’s not more or less intuitive, it’s just what you are used to.

    What’s kinda special with English is that there are multiple abbreviation styles. Off the top of my head I can think of six styles:

    • Abbreviate random parts of words using a slash: “N/A”, “w/”, “w/o”
    • Abbreviate keeping only the first letter of a word using a dot: “e.g.”
    • Abbreviate keeping the first and some random later consonants (and sometimes consonants that aren’t in the word at all) without using punctuation: Dr, Mr, Ms, Mrs
    • Abbreviate using acronyms and no punctuation: BBC
    • Abbreviate using acronyms and dots: B.C.
    • Abbreviate by substituting parts of the word with a single letter: Xmas (Christmas), Xing (Crossing)
    • ValiantDust@feddit.de
      0·
      1 year ago

      Abbreviate keeping the first and some random later consonants (and sometimes consonants that aren’t in the word at all) without using punctuation: Dr, Mr, Ms, Mrs

      I think it’s usually the first letter(s) and the last letter(s). In older English handwritings I’ve come across M.ʳ etc. So I think that’s were those came from.

      • Taniwha420@lemmy.world
        0·
        1 year ago

        … I think it’s actually a Latin word, “re,”, meaning, “the matter (subject)” not an abbreviation at all.

        • user134450@feddit.deEnglish
          0·
          1 year ago

          yeah this is a real pet peeve of mine.

          In German many people, web mailers and also sometimes even email software use “AW:” (short for AntWort) instead of “Re:” and then some of them don’t even recognize the existence of a previous “AW:” or “Re:” giving you such wondrous email subjects as: “AW: Re: AW: Re: AW: AW: Re: AW: Re: really important subject” 🤦

          • Square Singer@feddit.de
            0·
            1 year ago

            Oh, that totally works with a single language too: “Re: Re: Re:…” or “AW: AW: AW:…” seen both of that often enough.

            • user134450@feddit.deEnglish
              0·
              1 year ago

              yes indeed. i keep being confused how email can still suck so much sometimes when it had decades to mature.

              • Square Singer@feddit.de
                0·
                1 year ago

                Massive amounts of federation ;)

                It’s really hard to get thousands of software development companies, hundreds of thousands of hosters and billions of users to unitedly go for a new thing.

    • sarchar@programming.devEnglish
      0·
      1 year ago

      In programmer lingo we’ll sometimes shorten words with the number of letters in between:

      i18n (internationalization) and L10n (localization). I just learned of g11n (globalization), too.

    • Mouselemming@sh.itjust.works
      0·
      1 year ago

      Dr., Mrs., Ms. etc. are traditionally abbreviated with periods/dots but it does raise issues typing on one’s phone because autocorrect thinks it’s the end of a sentence, so sans dots is becoming more common. And there’s other examples which have never had dots, like nvm and af

      X is a little special, it stands for Cross and therefore also for Christ. When illiterate medieval people had to sign documents they were told to make the sign of the Cross, since they were usually swearing

      Edit: anyone else always pronounce PED XING as pedexing instead of pedestrian crossing?

      • Dark Arc@social.packetloss.ggEnglish
        0·
        1 year ago

        As a non-Christian, I never made that Xmas connection. It sounds cool, but I was never sure why anyone started calling that (and evidently never curious enough to go looking for an answer or even really ask, I just kinda took it as one of those things that is how it is because people are going to people).

        • Akuchimoya@startrek.website
          0·
          1 year ago

          As a non-Christian, I never made that Xmas connection.

          Well, as a Christian, I wouldn’t feel bad about it because the poster is not correct. The X in Xmas does not stand for a cross, it comes from the Greek spelling of Christ which is Χριστός. The chi-rho symbol (☧) is an imposition of the first two letters (Χ and ρ) and is still commonly used to refer to Christ in some denominations.

          As a bonus: if you’ve ever wondered (or not wondered) why some Christian symbolism uses a fish, ἸΧΘΥΣ (or ICTHYS) is an acronym for Ἰησοῦς Χρῑστός Θεοῦ Υἱός Σωτήρ, “which translates into English as ‘Jesus Christ, God’s Son, Savior’.” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ichthys) This has been used since the first century.

    • candybrie@lemmy.world
      0·
      1 year ago

      I’m used to Dr., Mr., Mrs. all needing the dot.

      I’d also add the medical ones which all use x, and most use the first letter of the word, but not all, so it’s kinda point 3, kinda not:

      • Prescription: rx
      • Symptoms: sx
      • Diagnosis: dx
      • History: hx
    • Retiring@lemmy.ml
      0·
      1 year ago

      m. is not a German abbreviation for mit, afaik. I never once read that. Where did you get that from?

      • Square Singer@feddit.de
        0·
        1 year ago

        As an Austrian, I have often seen it on food packaging with limited space. Something like “Rotkraut m. Apfel”.