See also:   [Literary Terms] 
   

See also: Acronym

Abreviation

An abreviation is the evil twin sister of the acronym,
just wearing differnt shoes.

For exampe, instead of spelling out the word "abreviation", we
can abreviate it by writing "abrev."  The period at the end is
customary for most individuals who like the occasional
puctuation                            .

So, the question naturally arrises: Is an isolated dot (see 
above) a period, or is it just a very, very, very, very very small
circle filling in for the period.  

Filled in?

Yes, Phil Dihn is the night watchman.  (With a tip of the
towel to the writers and fine folks at Police Squad (IN COLOUR!).

Common abreviations are:

&            = Ampersand (see: Literary Symbolsetc.)
ff.            = following, following pages; eg, P.12ff (pages 12 and following)
gd.          = Godrey Daniels (fav ejcaculatory comment by W.C. Fields)
hov.        = Hovercraft
inc.          = Including, included, inclusive.
j.c.           = Jiminey Christmas
klimt.       = Gustav Klimt
lat.           = Latitude (degress north or south of the equator)
Mme.       = Madam (French) or some thing the abrev for Miss.
MNC = Minimum Necessary Change (but not mathematically so; ie, NOT a limit point (necessarily)).
N.B.         = Nota Bene (noh-tah ben-ay; Latin "Note well")
POV = Point of View
o.c.r.       = Optical Character Recognition
qxrlt.       = Quixote Rides Again!
ROI = Return on Investment (profit/loss $$$$-thing
r.s.v.p.    = Respsonde S'vous pley ?sp? (please respond, if you please)
SWAK      = Acronym for "Sealed With a Kiss"
tot.           = Total
u.              = Upside-down, under constant acceleration
v.              = very (not v. widely used ;)
w.             = wibble
x.              = ex-
ymac        = Monty Python's "Young Man's Anti-Communist League
zzz.          = Sleep mode.