So, is there a sticky somewhere that helps explain some of these? I know celiac disease, gluten-free/CF and DH as well as a few others, but there are so many on this board that IDK! If there's not a sticky on this, there should be IMHO. TY.

This is just a guess: I don't know


I wish the abbreviations would be kept to a minimum as many of us aren't up to date with text messaging lettering. For a while I thought POS meant Positive... and I couldn't figure out a sentence such as this:

The new thing I purchased was a pos.

Then I finally figured it out days later. Since we aren't being charged by the "letter" as we would be if this were cell phones and Blackberries could we avoid the less common abbreviations.

There are lots of acronym dictionaries out there - here's one: http://www.gaarde.org/acronyms/.

I don't have a problem with peopele using acronyms, as long as I can figure out what they mean in context. I understand how they upset people sometimes, though.

HTH (that means hope this helps )

I am not up on the text messaging either. It took me a long time to figure out some of the abbreviations....the Tv Commericals bug me when they talk in IM.

You could google acronyms you don't know. I do it all the time, and google's always got an answer for me!

Well, I started this topic after reading a woman's reply that said she had ED. I googled that and it said she had Erectile Dysfunction. I am pretty sure that women don't usually have that, so I was hoping there was a cheat sheet somewhere.

The dictionaries for this stuff is a nice idea but I really don't have that kind of time because the abbreviations are so rampant. For communication lines to work, it is necessary to try to achieve comunicating the message on the first try. Having the reader have to shoot back and forth to a dictionary makes it cumbersome and also makes the reader feel that perhaps he does not belong in the conversation. "In my humble opinion" I don't think abbreviations are necessary on a program board such as this. For example, I had no doubt that POS really meant "positive": why would I look it up when I thought I knew that POS meant positive? The other woman's example of ED is another perfect example of using abbreviations and creating miscommunication. Another reason is that the board is filled with people, like myself, who do not use these abbreviations in our normal course of life and it would be appreciated if the abbreviations were kept down to a minimum.

Since I haven't seen either of those in context yet...what do POS and ED mean?

Well, I still don't know about ED.......but a POS is a Piece of $#!t.

That was my first guess, but I'm from the south...so POS is a term passed down through generations. (long before text messaging) I didn't know others knew what it meant!

Southerner here too! Born and bred in New Orleans, Louisiana.

To me, a store owner, POS means point of sale.lol

What acronyms specifically are you looking for? That would be the place to start, so that they can be explained to you (and to most of us newbies). I can figure out most of them....I think. CC'd is cross contamination, Dx is diagnosis (right?), DH dermatitis herpetiformis, big D is diarhea, big C is constipation, ......what else? I only think I'm right and can guess at these because they apply to me. Please tell me if I'm wrong. Any others?

Well, I already knew all of those. Just some medical terminology and some people list their diagnoses with abbreviations or acronyms also the dna and genetic results. Those are the ones I have trouble with. If I can find some specific examples, I'll list them here.

I work in a hospital so for me ED means emergency room....so I wonder what "ED" the woman was referring to?

Actually, the abbreviations/acronyms predate texting by many years. I've been using these short forms since I started participating in newsgroups in the early 90s...this was well before I had an internet browser that actually showed images. If I'm not mistaken, L337 speak predates phone texting too.

YMMV - your methods may vary
IMHO - in my humble opinion
DH - can also mean dear husband or darn husband
DS/DD/DW - dear son, daughter, wife
ROTFLMAO - rolling on the floor laughing my ass off
AFAIK - as far as I know

etc

You can do a Google search for a list of common acronyms...pretty easy to find.

Michelle

and I learned a new one on American Idol the other night

TMTH---too much to handle

HA! Me too That was a new one for me...

I'm just reading your post for the first time, and while ED may generally refer to Erectile Dysfunction, in the context of celiac disease I would think of Explosive Diarreah. Been there, done that.

WITNESS!

Wow, thanks! How obvious, why didn't I think of that?

OK..good...I'm glad I saw this post, because I felt kind of stupid. Does DD, DS, DH mean Darling Daughter, etc? And are we required to use them? I wasn't sure. LOL Thanks

Required to use them, goodness no. In fact, the Administration has requested that we NOT used them. I too have difficulties translating.

I work at a school, so for me, ED means emotional disability