‘Acronyms’ at Wishful Thinking
An Unofficial Acronym Glossary
A list of Acronyms which were in use in those heady days of the Wishful Thinking Bulletin Board System
Some are not confined to email of course - as for example ‘SNAFU ’ did, I believe originate in the Military (as practised by Sergeant Bilko?); and ‘RFC’ defines an Internet Standard definition. Others are in general use in computing, such as ‘RTFM’ and ‘WYSIWYG’, and so on... But every little helps when every byte counts!
This list is offered more or less ‘as-was’ in 1994. Some of them now sound rather aggressive, but at the time they were rarely intended as such, and were mainly in use in forums of everyday conversations, amongst those who were chatting regularly with one another, and were enjoying a joust! :)
Since then, some of them have slipped into modern usage, like “FYI ” “EffWhyEye”, but then that's only following tradition. I discovered more recently (Christmas 2018) that “Taser” started life as an acronym, for “Thomas A. Swift's Electric Rifle”.
Acronym Derivation Meaning ACAS All Croaking All Stumbling reputedly not so good ADN Any Day Now next year (maybe?) AFAIAA As Far As I Am Aware Ooops, I've forgotten again... AFAIAC As Far As I Am Concerned what I say goes, OK? AFAICT As Far As I Can Tell I haven't a clue AFAIK As Far As I Know I made it up AFAIR As Far As I Recall You are wrong... AIUI As I Understand It Actually, I haven't the faintest idea what I'm talking about... AMF Goodbye (Adios, Mother...) yerrss ASAD All Singing All Dancing reputedly good AWGTHTGTTA? Are We Going To Have To Go Through This Again? you silly person, you! AWHFY Are We Having Fun Yet? nudge, nudge, say no more... AYANDA As You Are No Doubt Aware er, was that what you said? :-) AYK As You Know watch my lips ... BAD Broken As Designed BBR Burnt Beyond Repair BCNU Be seeing you BFN Bye For Now BICBW But I Could Be Wrong don't quote me! BION Believe It Or Not I made it up BMTIPG Brilliant Minds Think In Parallel Gutters BOF Boring Old Fart reserved for “wrinklies” BRB Be Right Back BRBAIS Be Right Back After I Shave I can't think *what* he means... BRS Big Red Switch BTA But Then Again BTAIM Be That As It May BTOBD Be There Or Be Dead chill out, man BTSOOM Beats The S*** Out Of Me how'd he do it? BTW By The Way incidentally BWQ Buzz Word Quotient CAD Control-Alt-Delete CADET Can't Add, Doesn't Even Try CDIJII Can't Delete It, Just Ignore It CPP Cheerio Pop-Pickers reserved for “wrinklies” CRAFT Can't Remember a F***ing Thing Likewise... Added 3 Dec 2005. DARFC Ducks And Runs For Cover! DASIR Dons Asbestos Suit In Readiness (for a flame!) A ‘flame’ is when someone gets mad at you! DIIK Damned if I know DTRT Do the right thing DWIMC Do what I mean, correctly DYGMM Did You Get My Message? why are you ignoring me?? FA File attach (or nothing :-)) FAQ Frequently Asked Question ::sigh:: oh, no not *that* one again.
Read The FAQ, Moron!FCFS First Come, First Served FI For Instance allow me to bore you ... FIFO First In, First Out FISH First In, Still Here FITB Fill In The Blank.... FOAF Friend of a friend FTF Face to face FUBAR F***ed Up Beyond All Recognition otherwise known as normality... FUD Fear, Uncertainty & Doubt FW FreeWare they can't touch you for it... FWIW For What It's Worth this is totally meaningless ... FYBITS F..k You, Buddy, I'm The Sysop all SysOps are anarchists... FYI For Your Information ... I'm going to bore you again GIGO Garbage In, Garbage Out Ask a computer a silly question, and you get a silly answer GD&RLHFC Grinning Ducking & Running Like Hell For Cover Whatever it is I just said, you can't touch me for it... GIWIST Gee I Wish I'd Said That GLGH Good Luck and Good Hunting GMTA Great Minds Think Alike GOWI Get On With It HSIK How Should I Know IW4M It Works for ME Must be something you're doing wrong, huh? IAE In Any Event Hard luck! IANAL I Am Not A Lawyer Treat this advice as worth what you paid for it (ie valueless) Added 3 Dec 2005. ICNR I Can-Not Remember go and look it up for yourself IDC In Due Course IDSWYM I Do See What You Mean Hey, I'm telepathic! IIRC If I Remember Correctly Ahem, I think I'm losing my mind! IMAO In My Arrogant Opinion clearly we disagree IME In My Experience when I were a lad ... IMHO In My Humble Opinion I am not very sure IMMSCO In My Misguided, Self-Centred Opinion I can admit I'm wrong occasionally, but can you? IMNSHO In My Not So Humble Opinion I am absolutely sure IMV In My View IOW In Other Words ISTM It Seems To Me don't you dare contradict! ITFA In The Final Analysis IWBNI It Would Be Nice If IYFEG Insert Your Favourite Ethnic Group IYSWIM If You See What I Mean I don't know what I'm talking about, do you? JAM Just A Moment JASE Just Another System Error that 'feature' again... JAWS Just another Windows Shell JIC Just In Case... the weasel clause JSNM Just Stark Naked Magic KISS Keep It Simple Stupid programs expand exponentially: don't let 'em get out of hand... MCIBTYC My Computer Is Better Than Your Computer mine (whatever it is) is bigger than yours... MFZ Microsoft Free Zone no such thing... MORFORW Male Or Female Or What? Some guys are called Hilary... you just can't be sure MRDA ‘Mandy Rice-Davies Applies’ ‘Well he would say that...’ - refuting a denial of the obvious in a well-known 1960's court case. Added 3 Dec 2005. NALOPKT Not A Lot Of People Know That my name's Michael Caine NBD No Big Deal NBFD No Big Deal NFW No F...ing Way NIMBY Not In My Back Yard... ...you don't NINO Nothing in, nothing out NOMB None Of My Business I'm going to poke my nose in anyway NOYB None Of Your Business what I do is my business! NPI No Pun Intended NQA No Questions Asked NR Now Reading NRR Now Re-Reading NTIM Not That It Matters NTIMM Not That It Matters Much OIC Oh, I See OTOH On The Other Hand acey-doosey OTTOMH Off The Top Of My Head PDQ Pretty Damned Quick ouch! that's too hot to handle! PLOKTA Press Lots Of Keys To Abort PITA Pain In The Ass Twit! PITM Pain In The Modem likewise... PMFBI Pardon Me For Butting In yeah, I'm a rude so and so, aren't I?? PMFJI Pardon Me For Jumping In POSSLQ Person of Opposite Sex Sharing Living Quarters POV Point Of View RFC Request For Comment RHIP Rank Has Its Privileges RIHNIYWFTS Really, I Had No Idea You Were From There - Sorry! turned out nice again, hasn't it? RNA Ring, No Answer ROTFAICGU Rolling On The Floor And I Can't Get Up I misread this one... ROTFL Rolling On The Floor Laughing somebody just made a boo-boo ROTFLMLCSO Rolling On The Floor Laughing My Little Cotton Socks Off cute, huh? ROTFLAPMP Rolled On The Floor Laughing And P**d My Pants RQWF Right Question, Wrong Forum of it right... well, at least you got part RSN Real Soon Now I'll do it tomorrow? next week? who knows? RTFM Read The Fine Manual ... what all good users should do ... SITD Still In The Dark I'm in way over my head... SKS Some Kind Soul one for those seeking help! SMOP Small Matter Of Programming SNAFU Situation Normal, All F***ed up see above SOL Straight Outta Luck missed again... SUFID Screwing Up Face In Disgust SWMBO She Who Must Be Obeyed 'Er Indoors... TAFN That's all for now TALOIA There's A Lot Of It About that 'feature' again ... TANJ There Ain't No Justice TANSTAAFL There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch TBYB Try Before You Buy TPTB The Powers That Be TFTT Thanks For The Thought TIA Thanks In Advance TIC Tongue In Cheek TPTB The Powers That Be TSR Totally Stupid Rules TTBOMK To The Best Of My Knowledge TTFN Ta Ta For Now TTYL Talk To You Later TIA Thanks In Advance (also aTdHvAaNnKcSe) TLA Three Letter Acronym (also FLA) ...but I hate TLAs! TM&H Taunting, Mocking & Hiding same as GD&RLHFC TTFN Ta Ta For Now yep! I'll be back... TTYL Talk To You Later your place or mine? WAEF When All Else Fails WALBOL With A Little Bit Of Luck it could happen WALBOL (AAFW) With A Little Bit Of Luck (and a following wind) it might just possibly happen WIBBLE Weighty Inexorable baBBLE WIR When It's Ready stop pestering me! WTF What on earth (!) WWFY Whatever Works for You Do your own thing, baby... WYSIWIT What You See Is What I Typed I like this one! WYSIWYG What You See Is What You Get Not like WordPerfect for Windoze WYGIWYPF What You Get Is What You Pay For maybe... YGIAGAM Your Guess Is As Good As Mine I don't know, do you? YADS Yet Another DOS shell YMMV Your Mileage May Vary Your own list of Acronyms may differ!
This list was personally crafted by Rosemary Lockie, FidoNet 2:253/188
29th January 1994, with later additions 3 Dec 2005.
Get this - it's (in, 2018) nearly 25 years (yes, I find it hard to believe
too), since it first saw the light of day!!!