Dropping the Article of Familiar Initialisms

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Howdy, this is Jeremy, originally from Connecticut, but I’m calling from Arcata right now.

Howdy, Jeremy. Arcata, California?

Yeah, that’s right. I’m actually traveling down the coast. I’m in the middle of a bit of hitching right now.

Oh, wow.

You’re hitching.

How long are you going to go? How far are you going to go?

Well, the goal is San Francisco right now, but my sign says Antarctica, so we’ll see what I got.

Yeah, that’ll get you some attention, right?

People will stop just to hear your story.

That’s the hope.

I’m traveling with a buddy, too, who’s got a little bit more stage sign.

We’re hoping the combo works out well.

Yeah, I hope one of you has nice legs.

Oh, yeah.

Well, we’re wearing pants, but they might be able to see through.

Keep your pants on.

What can we help you with, Jeremy?

So I was listening to the news a little bit back,

And the subject of Edward Snowden and the NSA came up,

And I noticed that Snowden himself and some other folks have been dropping the article the when referring to the NSA and other three-letter agencies, saying things like, at NSA we do this, or NSA does this, or FBI, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

And that seemed a little strange to me.

So I was wondering what was going on there.

Oh, wow.

Great question.

We get this pretty regularly.

So there’s a lot of people who are probably going, I want to know the answer to that, too.

Yeah, and it’s super hard to Google, too.

Oh, yeah.

You can really Google articles very well.

Let me give you and everyone else a word that you can Google that’s unusual enough that you’ll probably only come up with academic articles about this very subject.

And the word is anarthrous.

Anarthrous.

A-N-A-R-T-H-R-O-U-S.

And that basically means without a definite article.

The an is the negative there.

So Arthras is with the definite article and Anarthras is without the definite article.

And you’ll come up with a ton of stuff, including some really, really fantastic post on Language Log, which is like the big blog on the Internet to talk about all things linguistic.

In any case, we have a couple patterns here when it comes to whether or not we use the definite article, the, in front of an initialism or an acronym.

So the first rule that we know for pretty sure, let’s say 80% of the time, if you can pronounce it as a word, you’re probably not going to use the definite article.

Okay, like NASA.

NASA, right?

So generally you’re going to do that.

That’s not always the case, but most of the time.

A little less often, but almost as often.

If it’s an initialism, that is, you say the letters and don’t pronounce it as a word, you’re more likely to also not use the definite article.

But only if you’re really familiar with it or it’s very distanced from its original source.

For example, CBS.

Last night on CBS, I watched a great new show, right?

And I don’t say the CBS.

Or I could say I went down to KFC and got a bucket of chicken.

Right? I don’t say I went to the KFC

And got a bucket of chicken, right?

But that’s not always true.

Like HBO or other things like that.

Very good. HBO is a great example.

But it gets tricky after that because then we have

This whole huge set

Of initialisms and acronyms.

Again, acronyms are the ones that we pronounce

As a word. Initialisms are the ones

Where we say the letters. There’s a whole

Group of them that have their own customs

And traditions attached to them.

And the only way you’ll know whether or not you can

Use or should use the definite article

Is to hear other people who are in the know.

And so you kind of inherit this.

And this is where we get a really interesting circumstance

Like Edward Snowden using NSA without the in front of it

Because he’s an insider.

And insiders tend to drop the definite article

More than outsiders do.

Inside FBI, they say FBI and not the FBI.

Inside CIA, they say the CIA and not,

I’m sorry, they say CIA and not the CIA.

At the Oxford English Dictionary,

At Oxford University Press, where I used to work, outsiders almost always say the OED because it’s short for the Oxford English Dictionary, right?

Insiders say OED.

Will you look this entry up in OED and see if it matches?

So there’s a relationship to the word that matters according to the speaker.

If you are highly familiar with it, you are highly likely to drop the definite article.

Yeah, you know, that’s interesting.

I was wondering if I had also noticed that in some of the debates I’ve seen on TV or on the radio that people who tend to be defenders of the NSA or other such organizations seem a little bit more likely to drop the article, which would kind of go along with folks who are insiders, part of these organizations, all that.

Yes, exactly. That’s a really good observation that you’ve made. That’s exactly what I’ve seen as well.

All right, cool. Well, that went a long way to dispelling a number of conspiracy theories in my own head.

So that’s what you think about when you’re standing there on the side of the road.

Well, I think about all sorts of things.

I think that specific one may have been a shower thought, but you know how it goes.

Yeah, a shower thought.

I’ve got a list of those.

Most of the point where I need a waterproof marker for the shower.

Put this stuff down for later.

Can’t really Google in the shower.

Yeah, well, Google’s always coming up with new stuff.

Maybe they’ll come up with Google Shower.

I think that would be a winner.

Don’t you think?

Nice.

Yeah.

But what kind of pictures would they be taking?

Hey, you should patent that before they get their hands on it.

Okay, well, we better go, Jeremy, in that case.

All right.

Well, y’all have a good one.

You too.

Take care now.

Okay, have a good trip.

Thank you.

Bye.

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