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Jargon-auts, Wordsters, Acronyms, Abbreviations: Law Firm to the Rescue

If you haven?t yet discovered how much excellent information can be buried inside law firm websites, here is another example: Latham and Watkins Books of Jargon, including ?book? on corporate and banking finance jargon.

See previous OLR blog on Law Firm Websites and Blogs.

(Thank you to 3 Geeks and a Law Blog for the hot tip!)

Note: An abbreviation is different from an acronym. Who knew?! (Actually, there is probably no real agreement on this, especially if you throw in the term "initialism.")

One, the abbreviation (and the initialism, I presume), is a series of letters, e.g. NLRB, and the latter, the acronym, is created if those letters create a "word," such as FOIA, which most of us pronounce "foiya" rather than spelling out the letters, "F-O-I-A." Of course you also get the fun and hybrid ones, e.g. BWI, the Baltimore Washington Airport, which is an abbreviation, but also an acronym amongst those in the know. It's pronounced "BeeWee." (LOL!)

Full post as published by Oregon Legal Research on August 21, 2010 (boomark / email).