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
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)
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.
In the Speedwriting shorthand system, developed in 1924 for use with typewriter, / Is used to denote omitted sylables, so ‘with’ becomes w/ and ‘without’ becomes w/o. Here is a pretty deep guide on the precepts of Speedwriting:
But shouldn’t “w/o” then be written as “w/o/”?
And “N/A” omits more than one sylable in “applicable”.
I guess it’s a grown system.
Yeah. I have no evidence that this system invented those shortcuts, they may predate it by quite a bit
Yeah, it’s really hard to pinpoint such simple inventions.
Don’t forget re: which means regarding or in reference to, not reply.
… I think it’s actually a Latin word, “re,”, meaning, “the matter (subject)” not an abbreviation at all.
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” 🤦
Oh, that totally works with a single language too: “Re: Re: Re:…” or “AW: AW: AW:…” seen both of that often enough.
yes indeed. i keep being confused how email can still suck so much sometimes when it had decades to mature.
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.
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.
True, forgot about that one. I really hat this style of abbreviation^^
T2e, f4t a3t t2t o1e. I r4y h2e t2s s3e o0f a10n^^
F3d i0t f1r y1u.
Aaarg!!
you h2e it?
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?
Both Dr and Dr. are possible.
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).
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.
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
And that presumably is drawn as a fish in some language?
“ἰχθύς” is the ancient greek word for “fish” https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ΙΧΘΥΣ
I don’t see that word used in their comment?
click on the link pls
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
Both are possible: Dr and Dr.
Never heard of the x version. Very interresting.
Except Dr., Mr., ie., etc. use a period.
Both versions exist: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctor_(title)#Abbreviation
m. is not a German abbreviation for mit, afaik. I never once read that. Where did you get that from?
As an Austrian, I have often seen it on food packaging with limited space. Something like “Rotkraut m. Apfel”.
w/ appears to have origin in the food industry some 70 years ago (according to this question).
To me it makes sense, as I first encountered it in video games where abbreviations, acronyms, and text-saving-slang are commonplace. Furthermore, while abbreviations usually have multiple letters (in written text, not physical or mathematical equations), single letter abbreviations can quickly become confusing, so I belive that this is the reason for putting a slash behind it, or possibly a bar above it.
RANT: While I know that language changes all the time, I find it very unfortunate that this little fellow
o/and possibly his slightly more formal friendo7have become synonymous with “nazi salute”. First off, it’s the wrong arm! And second off, what do you have against “man waving” and “man saluting”?It must be very confusing for someone who uses this newer definition of o/ to visit the Elite:Dangerous forums.
EDIT: I’m very happy that I apparently am the only one who has met people who don’t know the real meaning of o/ and o7. I feared that this was a widespread problem, but luckily it appears that I simply am a worrywart.
First time hearing o7 as ‘nazi salute’, I only know it as a ‘military/captain’s salute’ out of Eve Online, Elite and some milsim games
If that annoys you, never get into advanced maths. There’s arbitrary symbols that make no sense like 3 dots in a triangle means therefore. An upside down capital A means for all.
But that’s a different use case. It’s math, not everyday written language.
