No More Wi Wuv Woos.

I declare, as of this moment, an eternal moratorium on the use of the letter "W" in acronyms.

Why, because it's just plain stupid to use that letter for abbreviating anything.

Let me clarify.

Of all the phonemics we ascribe to English language characters, "double-ewe" is the only one that requires more than one syllable. Moreover, it takes three syllables to identify that particular Roman character. This makes it an exercise in futility to abbreviate a "W" word that contains less than four syllables because one reaps no net benefit from the shortening of the expression.

Now, I'm kind of an all or nothing guy but I'm willing to let slide true acronyms, those that are pronounced as if they were words: NASA, IATSE, ASVAB, BASTARDS and, to use a germane example, WYSIWYG. One does, in fact, shorten the amount of effort expended through this act of abbreviation. However, abbreviations that are identified by pronouncing the attendant phonemes ascribed to the characters, like FBI, ATM, ISBN, DUI and PPPoE, should not involve a "W." "Double-ewe-tee-eff,"requires more effort to say that "What the fuck."

I see two possible solutions. The one with which I began this post, simply saying "World Trade Center," rather than saying, "Double-ewe-tee-see," or we give the "W" a better name. Personally, I think that the second option is more functional. I suggest "wha" as the name for the character. I doubt that the etymological community is likely to go along.