HI ME 5c = Hawaii Maine 5cents

[Palamon]

For the longest time, I thought HI ME 5C "Hi, me, 5 cents!" when I learned years later it's really an abbreviation for Hawaii, Maine, 5 cents, meaning it can only be recycled for money there.

So that begs the question: how well do you guys know abbreviations/acronyms? I'm absolutely terrible with them some days. I often have to ask what an abbreviation stands for unless it's something like lol, lmfao, or rofl, those I know. But stuff like HI ME 5c? I would have never known that upon first glance.

 

[Zeostar]

I'm familiar with them. I know somebody with Autism, and he has a pretty big fixation on learning acronyms. I learned them from him constantly talking about them.

 

[colours]

this thread immediately reminds me of this tweet

https://twitter.com/ShawnteJamesMD/status/1393172164824666113?s=20

have fun

 

[Corrin]

I frequently have to look them up, then people come up with new ones.
Never ending cycle.

 

[Aslan]

I am the person who gets asked by their friends what half the abbreviations I use mean :'D One of my friends who is a few years older than me made a joke about 'you youth and your lingo' but I can't think of any abbreviations that I use that are super unique. I only use a lot of common ones like nvm, gtg, bbl, hru, btw, lmk, imo, tbh or just ones that will come up in chatrooms. Some of my friends and in particular family did not use chatrooms at all growing up though so I understand when they're like ??????

I will say I'm concerned how fast I can understand the super long abbreviations but it's neat how our brains work and can interpret what they mean instantly!

 

[pkmin3033]

I'm fairly good with most acronyms the kids use these days but it was probably longer than it should have been before I learned what "smh" and "jfc" stood for despite being exposed to them on an almost daily basis. Sometimes these things just don't register with me and since I can more or less infer what they probably mean from the context I never bother to ask, haha.

 

[Nick]

There's an acronym for everything these days, and even more when you get into fandoms and things like that. Every song by a particular artist has an acronym. Every term at my job has an acronym. Frankly I don't care to learn any of them. I still don't know what like half of them at my job mean.

 

[Devalue]

Knows some acronyms. Grew weary of them after seeing a long list of them on something informative. (Might have been a map or something about the college. Cannot recall.) Spells out most now. Uses an occasional acronym that is better known than the spelled out words, such as NPC.