Quote:
Originally Posted by Barrykgerdes
Do you really mean that you should use words even though you don't know what they mean?
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Well, meaning is one thing, while knowing the precise expanded form of an acronym is another.
To which I would then respond, depending, either
No, of course not, or
Yes, that is exactly what I meant. Except, of course, that the entire concept of "should use" in your original question is, well, not very relevant. Language is what language-users use. There's no "should" about it, and there are no language police to enforce the rules.
Language is a shared delusion in which:
(a) I believe that I know what I mean,
(b) I believe that you know what I mean once I say something,
(c) you believe that you know what I meant once I've said something,
and
(d) vice versa.
lol (<= See, I could quite reasonably know that this is an appropriate acronym to use here, even if I didn't know what it derived from, purely from having seen it used in many similar contexts. That wouldn't make me a dummy. That would actually mean that I am pretty smart. It is, after all, precisely how humans learn their first language.)