Cleaner abbreviations and contractions
On my other blogs and in various other writing, I often find that it would be convenient to abbreviate certain words and phrases. But there are few accepted methods of doing this.
The obvious one is using “&” (ampersand) to represent and. This is its intended function, since it originated as a ligature of “et”, the Latin word for and. Its name is a corruption of “and, per se and“, meaning “and, representing the word and itself”.
The most common, tho, is using an apostrophe to represent a dropped letter or two in contractions such as don’t or I’ll.
Another, largely fallen out of use, is “o’ ” to represent “of the”, now used mainly in “3 o’clock” type constructions.
And another, used fairly frequently, is “w/” to represent “with”. The slash as a means of abbreviation is traditionally used in a few other places, but they tend to be very specific and therefore not very useful (“G/L” for “general ledger” comes to mind).
Using a period to abbreviate words is the most natural way to make general abbreviations, and probably the oldest. So extending this seems the most logical idea.
Here is one proposal:
- “.” represents “the”
- “o.” represents “of” or “of the”
- “&.” represents “and the”
- “f.” represents “from” or “from the”
- “i.” represents “in” or “in the”
- “t.” represents “to” or “to the”
- “a.” represents “at” or “at the”
- “v.” represents “versus” or “versus the”
- “w.” represents “with” or “with the”
When followed by “a” or “an”, add an “a” after the period. (“f.a” = “from an”)
These would really only be used in places where space is at a premium, such as on marquees, newspaper headlines, and such.
Therefore:
- Harry Potter &. Order o. Phoenix
- Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
- .
- .Lord o. Rings: .Fellowship o. Ring
- The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
- .
- Escape f. Planet o. Apes
- Escape from the Planet of the Apes
- .
- He-Man &. Masters o. Universe
- He-Man and the Masters of the Universe
- .
- .Hitchhiker’s Guide t. Galaxy
- The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
- .
- Indiana Jones &. Kingdom o. Crystal Skull
- Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
- .
- Master & Commander: .Far Side o. World
- Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World
- .
- Mega Shark v. Giant Octopus
- Mega Shark versus Giant Octopus
- .
- Pirates o. Caribbean: .Curse o. Black Pearl
- Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
- .
- Devil w.a Blue Dress On
- Devil with a Blue Dress On
- .
- .Man w. Golden Gun
- The Man with the Golden Gun
- .
- Memoirs o.a Invisible Man
- Memoirs of an Invisible Man
It would be great to have the mid-dot handy to use instead of the period. The mid-dot is an existing character that is a single dot positioned a little lower than the top dot on a colon (·:). If this were accessible on the keyboard, it could be used for any abbreviation that formerly used a period, thereby clarifying the fact that it is merely the end of the word, and not the end of the sentence.
- ·Lord o· Rings: ·Fellowship o· Ring
- Pirates o· Caribbean: ·Curse o· Black Pearl
- Indiana Jones &· Kingdom o· Crystal Skull
- Mega Shark v· Giant Octopus
- Memoirs o·a Invisible Man
- Mosquito Man (a·k·a· Mansquito)
- 3 o·clock
- will o· wisp
You might ask, why bother with the period or mid-dot at all? The answer is that we want to make it clear that something is being left out. The mid-dot would be so useful for this, it should be used in place of the apostrophe for contractions. This would clean up quotations, which often are made awkward with an apostrophe in the middle (which is why I suggested the period instead of the apostrophe in the first place).
- can·t
- don·t
- I·ll
- She·ll
- would·ve
- hadn·t
- “You said, ‘I won·t’, didn·t you?”
- She had a list of “do”s and “don·t”s
If this were adopted, then the whole scheme becomes simple: replace the apostrophe with the mid-dot on the keyboard. Typing remains simple for contractions, and single quotes can be dealt with the way they always should have been: by having open and close single- and double-quote keys available in place of, for example, the square and curly brackets.
Even better, with the mid-dot we could signify the removal of whole words and phrases more clearly. Instead of using ellipses of three periods (…), we would make them three mid-dots (···). (These are, in fact, used in mathematics.) Then periods could remain clearly the representation of pauses and words just trailing off, rather than words being left out.
- “Four score and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation···.”
- “The fall of the Roman Empire was precipitated by ··· a breakdown in social cohesiveness… and Huns.”
- “And you·re going…?” “I·m going to the ··· club,” he snarled, “where I can get some ··· peace and quiet.”
I would say that “ellipsis” (·) and “ellipses” (···) would be the name for the mid-dot used this way. (Ellipsis means “ommision”.) And “trail” or perhaps “anatases” (Greek for “stretching”) would be the term for three periods (…) symbolizing speech that trails off.
