Hi, English isn't my mother tongue so I was asking myself that question since I first encounted a w/... Back then I was like: "What tf does 'w slash' stand for?" And when I found out I was like "How, why, and is it any intuitive?" But I never dared to ask that until now

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[–] 119 points 2 years ago (24 children)

All in all, the / is just one style of abbreviation used in English. It's not only used for "with", but also a few other words (w/o = without, N/A = not applicable).

In German we abbreviate using a dot (e.g. "m." = "mit" = "with). That's not more or less intuitive, it's just what you are used to.

What's kinda special with English is that there are multiple abbreviation styles. Off the top of my head I can think of six styles:

  • Abbreviate random parts of words using a slash: "N/A", "w/", "w/o"
  • Abbreviate keeping only the first letter of a word using a dot: "e.g."
  • Abbreviate keeping the first and some random later consonants (and sometimes consonants that aren't in the word at all) without using punctuation: Dr, Mr, Ms, Mrs
  • Abbreviate using acronyms and no punctuation: BBC
  • Abbreviate using acronyms and dots: B.C.
  • Abbreviate by substituting parts of the word with a single letter: Xmas (Christmas), Xing (Crossing)
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  • [–] 42 points 2 years ago* (3 children)

    I'm used to Dr., Mr., Mrs. all needing the dot.

    I'd also add the medical ones which all use x, and most use the first letter of the word, but not all, so it's kinda point 3, kinda not:

    • Prescription: rx
    • Symptoms: sx
    • Diagnosis: dx
    • History: hx
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  • [–] 10 points 2 years ago*

    I learned similar shorthand from an accountant, who wrote transfer (money transfer between accounts) as tx.

    Also, it used to be obligatory to put the dot on Mr., Mrs., Dr., etc. I'm old, I remember how it was taught. And we called those dots "periods". I haven't been in school in decades, but I've been noticing those dots disappearing.

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  • [–] 31 points 2 years ago (8 children)

    In programmer lingo we'll sometimes shorten words with the number of letters in between:

    i18n (internationalization) and L10n (localization). I just learned of g11n (globalization), too.

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  • [–] 17 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    This one is terrible IMO. A11y is ironically very inaccessible unless you’re aware of this unintuitive system.

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  • [–] 9 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    True, forgot about that one. I really hat this style of abbreviation^^

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  • [–] 17 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (5 children)

    Dr., Mrs., Ms. etc. are traditionally abbreviated with periods/dots but it does raise issues typing on one's phone because autocorrect thinks it's the end of a sentence, so sans dots is becoming more common. And there's other examples which have never had dots, like nvm and af

    X is a little special, it stands for Cross and therefore also for Christ. When illiterate medieval people had to sign documents they were told to make the sign of the Cross, since they were usually swearing

    Edit: anyone else always pronounce PED XING as pedexing instead of pedestrian crossing?

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  • [–] 5 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    As a non-Christian, I never made that Xmas connection. It sounds cool, but I was never sure why anyone started calling that (and evidently never curious enough to go looking for an answer or even really ask, I just kinda took it as one of those things that is how it is because people are going to people).

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  • [–] 7 points 2 years ago

    Oddly enough, people who didn't know that part of the history got angry "they took Christ out of Christmas!" So then people who liked the holiday but not the religion used it to do exactly that. As you say, people people.

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  • [–] 6 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    As a non-Christian, I never made that Xmas connection.

    Well, as a Christian, I wouldn't feel bad about it because the poster is not correct. The X in Xmas does not stand for a cross, it comes from the Greek spelling of Christ which is Χριστός. The chi-rho symbol (☧) is an imposition of the first two letters (Χ and ρ) and is still commonly used to refer to Christ in some denominations.

    As a bonus: if you've ever wondered (or not wondered) why some Christian symbolism uses a fish, ἸΧΘΥΣ (or ICTHYS) is an acronym for Ἰησοῦς Χρῑστός Θεοῦ Υἱός Σωτήρ, "which translates into English as 'Jesus Christ, God's Son, Savior'." (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ichthys) This has been used since the first century.

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  • [–] 4 points 2 years ago (4 children)

    When you type Dr., et al., you normally follow it with a proper noun. Why is the auto caps an issue?

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  • [–] 11 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Don’t forget re: which means regarding or in reference to, not reply.

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  • [–] 12 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    ... I think it's actually a Latin word, "re,", meaning, "the matter (subject)" not an abbreviation at all.

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  • [–] 8 points 2 years ago* (3 children)

    yeah this is a real pet peeve of mine.

    In German many people, web mailers and also sometimes even email software use "AW:" (short for AntWort) instead of "Re:" and then some of them don't even recognize the existence of a previous "AW:" or "Re:" giving you such wondrous email subjects as: "AW: Re: AW: Re: AW: AW: Re: AW: Re: really important subject" 🤦

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  • [–] 5 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Oh, that totally works with a single language too: "Re: Re: Re:..." or "AW: AW: AW:..." seen both of that often enough.

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  • [–] 3 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (2 children)

    yes indeed. i keep being confused how email can still suck so much sometimes when it had decades to mature.

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  • [–] 5 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Abbreviate using the first and then any choice of following letter that differentiates it from the other possibilities in a specific group: AL, AR, AK, AZ... MA, ME, MD, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT.... WA, WI, WV, WY!

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  • [–] 5 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Abbreviate keeping the first and some random later consonants (and sometimes consonants that aren't in the word at all) without using punctuation: Dr, Mr, Ms, Mrs

    I think it's usually the first letter(s) and the last letter(s). In older English handwritings I've come across M.ʳ etc. So I think that's were those came from.

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