Please join in this discussion: RBI stands for Runs Batted In (already pluralized) so why do sportscasters continually say "Ribbies" or RBIs????? Isn't that redundant?
Would someone put me out of my misery if I am wrong? Would someone please contact ESPN and MLBN if I am right? I have pleaded with many associations about it and no one seems to take note...Or is it a man thing and no one wants to be correct?
KC
First, welcome.
Abbreviations of all types are problematic. The rules applied to conventional words simply don't apply. For example, in traditional footnotes, the abbreviations for page and line, p. and l., are made plural by doubling, so pages and lines are pp. and ll. Example: pp. 199-206 (This book sounds very interesting till the "concerning …" part.)
One could argue that even if the last word represents the main noun, you shouldn't add the s to form the plural, since it too would be abbreviated the same way. However, I have never heard anyone make that argument. In many cases, the abbreviation takes on a life of its own apart from the words it represents. So we have VIPs, DVDs, DAs, PhDs, VPs, MVPs, YMCAs, CSIs along with RPMs, WACs, and RBIs.
At one point people said US of A. Now it's just USA. What is the plural of Very Important Person? Is it Very Important Persons? Very Important People? No matter. Even if People has no s, the plural of VIP is VIPs.
To address your specific question, I would propose, however, that RBI has come to stand for "Run Batted In" in the singular as in "He just got another RBI"; we don't say "He just added one to his RBI." So redundancy of the plural is no longer an issue, and we are left with the question of a "proper" way to represent the plural of an abbreviation, as addressed above. In this case, I think that RBIs is a much better alternative to RBI, with the plural Runs still abbreviated as R unchanged, or to RsBI, with the pluralizing s placed after the initial of the appropriate word Runs.
Don't get me started on the question of the article a or an with RBI.
To me, when something becomes an acronym it may then take on a singular overtone. The plural of RBI is RBIs. And it would be an RBI. Without all three words, "run batted in" the a becomes an in relation to the R. Does this make sense? No. Does this make sense? Yes. Welcome to the verbal gymnastics that we deal with on a daily basis with language. Just another case in which our communicative abilities can be bent in order to create a sense of order within the rules. And yes my friends and I would be VIPs and my family has two PhDs...
In the mainframe computer world, computer speed is measured in Millions of Instructions Per Second or MIPS. Only nowadays, inevitably, "MIP" has become a noun with the plural "MIPs"; a machine is said to have 10 MIPs, or to be a 10-MIP machine.
I'll add "MPs" (members of Parliament), "ETAs" (estimated times of arrival) and MCs (masters of ceremony) to the list.
JKAlbers said:
To me, when something becomes an acronym it may then take on a singular overtone. The plural of RBI is RBIs.
Although not an acronym, I agree with you. I've heard the same discussion about RPMs and there are many more like that.