Mine is OOO for Out Of Office. I always misread it in my head like a ghost and it takes me a few seconds to process. It also doesn’t translate to speech—you have to say the whole thing.
Interested to see if others have similar acronyms they beef with.
I was reading this entire thread thinking “most of the examples people are listing are initialisms not acronyms”, then your comment made me realise that some things I have consider an initialism, others treat as an acronym… I wonder which of the examples in this discussion I sound out letter by letter but other people are pronouncing like it’s a whole word.
GUI is the perfect example. I have always pronounced it “Gee you eye”. And growing up that’s how it heard it. Now, most of my friends say “Gooey” and it takes me a hot minute to understand what they’re talking about because it’s always been “gee you eye” for me. I’ve only noticed “gooey” in the last 3ish years. I can’t train myself out of it (and I’ve tried), but I’m not sure I want too.
I’m wondering if a DUI will cease to be a Dee You Eye and soon become a Dooey?
This is why I don’t think we should be bothering with the distinction between initialism and acronym in casual conversation. Everyone has their own way of using words and phrases that can be radically different, and there seems to be no disctinctive rules on when you can and can’t pronounce them.
I’ve heard DUI referred to as “Dooey” for decades.