Here are, for your enjoyment, the etymology and derivation of several common net abbreviations. Those marked with a † are cited in the OED, while the others, as far as I know, have yet to be formally etymologized. I am deeply indebted to Dr. G. P. Savage (paul@carbon.chem.csiro.au) for his explanation of some of the more obscure acronyms in his post (originally dated 7 July 1992, updated 5 April 1993) entitled “Internet Acronyms.”
- btsoom
- acronym of “beats the s*** out of me.”
- BTW
- ejac. acronym of “by the way.”
- bug
- n. flaw or misbehavior in a computer program; coined when a puzzling problem in an early computer was traced to an actual moth that had died in the vacuum tubes †
- feature
- n. bug (q.v.) in a program known to its designers, who opt not to attempt to correct it.
- flame
- n. hostile or aggressive response to another’s electronic communication; a post, email message, or other communication containing flames. v. to send a flame to another user. Origin unknown.
- flamewar
- n.series of flames (q.v.)
- foo
- an embarassing or otherwise significant mistake; clipped form of fubar (q.v.)†
- fubar
- n. acronym of “f***ed up beyond all recognition” (q.v. snafu)†
- fwiw
- adv. acronym of “for what it’s worth”
- fyi
- ejac. acronym of “for your information”; origin unknown †
- GR&D
- n. (verbal) acronym of “grinning running & ducking”
- IANAL
- acronym of “I am not a lawyer”; also IANA … such as CPA
- IMO
- adv. acronym of “in my opinion”; pronounced thus to differentiate from “imho” (q.v.)
- IMCO
- adv. acronym of “in my considered opinion”; origin unknown
- IMHO
- adv. acronym of “in my humble opinion”; origin uknown.
- IMNSHO
- adv. acronym of “in my not-so-humble opinion”; origin uknown, but clearly derivative of imho (q.v.)
- IOW
- adv. acronym of “in other words”
- killfile
- n. list of undesirable userids used by one’s newsreader to screen posts; from the name of the file, “.killfile”
- mav
- v. to speak out loud what was intended as a command or private message (on IRC); to commit a foo (q.v.). From Mav, nick of poster on one of the first IRC channels, who was prone to mavving.
- NFW
- ejac. acronym of “no f***ing way”; origin unknown
- NRN
- acronym of “no reply necessary”; origin unknown.
- OTOH
- ejac. acronym of “on the other hand”; origin unknown.
- PITA
- n. acronym of “pain in the ass”; origin unknown, but formation undoubtedly influenced by pita “Mediterranean pocket bread”
- ROFL
- an acronym of “rolling on floor laughing”; origin unknown
- RSN
- adv. acronym of “real soon now,” usually used sarcastically to mean “may be a long time coming”; origin unknown
- RTFM
- acronym for “read the f***ing manual”; origin unknown;
- SITD
- adj. acronym of “still in the dark”; origin unknown, but possibly influenced by creator code of Macintosh application Stuffit Deluxe (also SitD), which created a new incompatible version of a popular compression standard and caused much lingering confusion
- snail mail
- n. a common term for the United States Postal Service (c.f. email)
- TIA
- acronym of “thanks in advance”
- TIC
- adv. acronym of “tongue in cheek”
- TLA
- n. acronym of “three letter acronym”
- SNAFU
- n. acronym of “situation normal, all f***ed up” †
- vaporware
- n. piece of software promised by public relations team but not delivered by programmers; compound of vapor “gas, smoke” and base -ware “software”
- .newsrc
- n. file containing list of available newsgroups, whether or not the user subscribes to them, and the posts in each that the user has read; from the name of the file in the UNIX protocol
- .sig or .signature
- n. information automatically appended to the bottom of one“s email or posts, usually containing the user’s name and often including snailmail (q.v.) address, favorite quotation, or other identifying information; from the name of the file containing the signature text in UNIX protocol