Commonly Used Acronyms & Nicknames
Occasionally readers will run across an acronym or nickname they are unfamiliar with, and rather than ask what something means in a comment, they may wish to use the following list I've compiled. I made no effort to list every acronym or nickname known to humankind, I've simply listed a few. You won't find "lol" or "wth" or "bbf", but you'll find things we use on this site, maybe forgetting that others haven't been where we have been, and might not know what the heck we're talking about.
For the more common slang, please use the search tool at Urban Dictionary.
Also, check out these sites for other acronyms:
http://www.techdictionary.com/
http://techterms.com/category/acronyms
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._government_and_military_acronyms
Note: List not alphabetized, but searchable from a standard keyboard.
1. Press CNTRL + F (for find, I guess)
2. In the search box that pops up, type in the acronym.
That should highlight the acronym.
*Please, anyone using a non-standard keyboard, post the device you use, and steps on searching a page. I'll add accordingly.
Site-Specific Acronyms and Nicknames
Because so many of us are refugees from DailyKos, the Democratic Party's very own Brietbart, readers will come across quite a few DailyKos acronyms and/or nicknames. Here are some.
DailyKos - a once truly progressive website. Now an echo chamber and an arm of the Right Wing Democratic Party.
DailyKos also known as:
DK (not to be confused with Don't Know),DKos, dkos, Great Orange Satan (GOS), The Other Place (TOP), Little Orange Footballs (LOF)
Kos – Owner of DK (Markos Moulitsas). Also known as: Little Napoleon, Little Nappy, LN
OT -- Over There (TOP), Off Topic, or Open Thread depending on context
LOF - Little Orange Footballs (DK) is a takeoff on Little Green Footballs, an infamously right wing blog site that seems to have attempted to redeem itself as more mainstream. See also, Orange references, below.
NR – No Rating – a punishment imposed by DK upon users who either actually violate that site's rules, or who are ganged up on by the paid Hillbot shills working for the site (or by the koolaid drinkers at the site.) A user who gets NRd is not allowed to uprate (thumbs up here on C99) for a specific amount of time.
TO – Time Out – another punishment doled out by DK. Times are one week, one month, one year, and lifetime.
MOJO – Reputation status at DK.
BOJO – Banned DK members are said to be BOJOd. It's a cross between bones and mojo, because the user's status sports an orange skull and crossbones after being banned.
TU – Trusted User status at DK, allowing for uprating and flagging of comments and diaries (essays/stories), and allows the user to see Hidden Comments & Diaries.
HR – Hide rate, now called flags, like a thumbs down for comments and diaries.
asdf -- first 4 letters beside Caps Lock key on a standard keyboard, used to fill in the subject line of a comment (I have no clue why people use it.) EDIT: Thanks, CS in AZ for this explanation: putting "asdf" in the subject line was something that people used when dkos required something be typed into the subject line be entered in order to post a comment, and the writer couldn't or didn't want to think of one.
*DBAD (Don't be a dick)
*DBAA (Don't be an ass)
pootie or kitteh - pussycat
woozle - dog
Orange references - the common color scheme of Dkos was (is? haven't been in so long I don't even know) overwhelming burnt orange. For University of Texas and Tennessee fans, it wasn't a problem. Others despised the color scheme. This comment, below has a nice pic and this to say about it:
TOP is also sometimes referred to as dark waters, orange
waters, or dangerous waters, because we here are the calm blue waters.
As well as this from CS in AZ, also found below:
Little Orange Footballs is a play on another site called Little Green Footballs (http://littlegreenfootballs.com/). I don't know the history there, but I think it has to do with the owner's/site's evolution into a Democratic Party spin machine. Both this reference and GOS for great orange satan might be supplemented with a note the Kos loves the color orange and the site has an orange color scheme. (Less so as time goes on, but orange is their "team color")
Non Site-Specific Acronyms & Nicknames
POTUS – President of the United States
FLOTUS – First Lady of the United States
DWS – Debbie Wasserman-Schultz – Former campaigner for Hillary '08, was instrumental in stealing the nomination from Bernie Sanders while heading the DNC during the 2016 Primaries, now works out in the open for Hillary.
Debbie Downer – DWS
WJC – William Jefferson Clinton, Bill Clinton, Slick Willie
HRC – Hillary Rodham Clinton, Medusa, Her Heinous, The Queen of Wall Street, Killary, Hellary, The Mad Bomber (TMB)
Hairball – Donald Trump, Derr Drumph
*GWB – George W. Bush, Dubya
*IANAL (I am not a lawyer)
IANAS - I am not a scientist
IANAE - I am not an economist
IANAD - I am not a doctor
*IMO (In My Opinion,)
*BTW (By the way,)
*FWIW (For what it's worth)
IOW – In other words
YMMV – your mileage may vary
TWWD – that which we do
FSC - former secretary Clinton
CT - conspiracy theory or concern troll(ing)
LEO - law enforcement officer
FUBAR - fouled (fucked) up beyond all repair (recognition)
SNAFU - situation normal, all fouled (fucked) up
n/t (or /nt) - no text (used back in the day on message boards to indicate no more text follows; used here in subject lines to indicate the same - no text in the message box, just in the subject line)
eom - end of message (same as n/t)
IIRC - if I recall correctly
IOKIYRHRC - it's ok if you are Hillary Rodham Clinton (etc. - there are many variations on this one; the ending letters depend on context)
IOKIYAC - It's OK if you're a Clinton (or a Christian)
IOKIYT - It's OK if you're Trump
IOKIYR - It's OK if you're rich
*IOKIYAR (It's OK if you are Republican)
FOIA - freedom of information act
BOB - Bernie or Bust.
TBI - traumatic brain injury
TMI - too much information
TBTF - too big to fail
SMH - shaking my head
SMDH - shaking my damn head
CCDS - Clinton Cognitive Dissonance Syndrome
/s - end snark
HFC - Henry Fucking Kissinger
FSM - Flying Spaghetti Monster
Groups/Organizations
TPW - The Progressive Wing
TPTB – the powers that be
BLM – Black Lives Matter – or Bureau of Land Management, depending on context
SCOTUS – Supreme Court of the United States
DNC – Democratic National Committee
*DSCC – Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee
DCCC - Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. Usually called the D triple C or D Trip.
FBI - Federal Bureau of Investigation (snark or maybe not - Federal Bureau of Intimidation)
CIA - Central Intelligence Agency
LAPD - Los Angeles Police Department
MIC - military industrial complex (also might be medical industrial complex, depends on context)
CNN - Clinton News Network
FOX - Fuckin' Old Xenophobes
GWOT - global war on (of) terror
SCROTUS- Supreme Court Republicans of the United States
MSNBC - Must Show No Bernie Coverage or Must Say Nothing Bad about Clinton
*Stolen from Alex Budarin, (a user here at C99, aka caucus 99 percent)
Comments
Great start. thanks.
"Just call me Hillbilly Dem(exit)."
-H/T to Wavey Davey
TPTB....(the powers THAT be)
GWOT (global war on terror)
FSC (former secretary Clinton)
TPW (The Progressive Wing)
CT (conspiracy theory)
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
Fixed it, and thanks /nt (oh, there's another one lol)
CT also: Concern Troll(ing)
Another Category For Institutions/Groups
For example: GWOT - Global War On Terror. I was surprised when a post I wrote was hijacked because GWOT was not recognized.
I thought GWOT was as common as FBI or CIA or LAPD or BLM.
Just a suggestion.
"They'll say we're disturbing the peace, but there is no peace. What really bothers them is that we are disturbing the war." Howard Zinn
I added it
I guess I can move some of the other orgs around (DNC, DSCC, SCOTUS(?)), and create a subsection.
Back when BLM (Black Lives Matter) first came into being, I had to get used to not thinking Bundy Ranch BLM (Bureau of Land Management) lol. Context is key.
BTW, I would not have known GWOT if it hadn't been spelled out for me.
Thx
Nice start. Should we put a page limit on the finished list of acronyms?
I have never twittered (tweeted?) and deleted my facebook app, because I kept getting annoying notifications about updates from idiots.
Forget about Reddit or Tumblr, etc. How many "social" acronyms are there in those places? Dozens? Hundreds?
"They'll say we're disturbing the peace, but there is no peace. What really bothers them is that we are disturbing the war." Howard Zinn
Going to add links
CitizenOfEarth suggested links, and when I get access to my desktop tomorrow, I'll do it. Common ones like lol, would be too long and redundant since lists to them already exist.
However, things most of us wouldn't text, that get posted here, I want to include. DCCC is one.
I need to add a word to my Groups/Organizations title and move TWOT like you suggested. On my phone now. Neither TWOT, nor MIC are actual groups or organizations. Movements? Is that a better description that I could add to the subtitle?
Help me out folks, please? What's a one or two word description of things like TWOT and MIC?
Wow!
Congratulations for attempting to take on this enormous project. You are a far better and more patient person than I am.
LOF - Little Orange Footballs is a takeoff on Little Green Footballs, an infamously right wing blog site that seems to have attempted to redeem itself as more mainstream.
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
Thanks, gg. Stolen :-) Edit
How do you spell Marokos' last name? Moulitakas or something like that, right?
Edit: it's Moulitsas
I still see LOF
as Lord o' the Flies
ASDF is angry, sullen, depressed (or disaffected), and frustrated.
TBA is to be announced (not intended to make one asdf)
TMI is Three Mile Island (don't wanna give too much information, here)
LEO law enforcement officer in low earth orbit
FUBAR fouled (fucked) up beyond all repair (recognition)
SNAFU situation normal, all fouled (fucked) up
CNN Clinton News Network
FOX Fuckin' Old Xenophobes
There is no such thing as TMI. It can always be held in reserve for extortion.
Thanks Deja, for getting this started
A couple of things to add or consider adding:
OT, besides referring to "over there" (dkos) I've seen it used here to refer to open thread, and sometimes off topic.
Bojo, in ref. to dkos, does mean a banned member, but its origin is "bony mojo" which came into use when they added the skull & crossbones icon for banned members.
Little Orange Footballs is a play on another site called Little Green Footballs (http://littlegreenfootballs.com/). I don't know the history there, but I think it has to do with the owner's/site's evolution into a Democratic Party spin machine. Both this reference and GOS for great orange satan might be supplemented with a note the Kos loves the color orange and the site has an orange color scheme. (Less so as time goes on, but orange is their "team color")
putting "asdf" in the subject line was something that people used when dkos required something be typed into the subject line be entered in order to post a comment, and the writer couldn't or didn't want to think of one.
...
NT - sometimes used at the end of the subject line, on here and other sites: it means "no text" and indicates that the subject line is the entire comment, so no need to click and open it to read more.
IIRC - if I recall correctly
IOKIYRHRC - it's ok if you are Hillary Rodham Clinton (etc. - there are many variations on this one; the ending letters depend on context)
GWOT - global war on (of) terror
MIC - military industrial complex (also might be medical industrial complex, depends on context)
FOIA - freedom of information act
Excellent! Thanks, CS in AZ, BTW. . .
I love your avatar!
Thanks for reminding me about open thread & off topic.
Also, thanks for reminding me of the skull and crossbones.
And, thanks for the others. Dishes will wait lol.
LOL - laugh out loud; ROFL - rolling on floor laughing
LMAO - laughing my ass off
ROFLMAO - rolling on floor laughing my ass off (or I use R for rump)
NT - (not sure, but I know it means there's no more message)
EOM - end of message
WOW - World of Warcraft or War on Women
TY - thank you; TYVM - thank you very much; TYFYH - thank you for your help
YW - you're welcome (I know you know these, but someone OT asked me just yesterday!)
Dems - Democrats
Repubs, Repugs - Republicans, the Repugnant party.
TP - third party - not to be confused w/ more general usage of TP!
Markos is Moulitsas.
In case anyone wondered:
pootie or kitteh - pussycat
woozle - dog
(the above were DKos members' pets' names)
I usually write DKos instead of DK since DK can indicate "don't know"
featherbutts - birdies
furbutts - mammals
leatherbutts - reptiles n such
Some of the others get riffed off of -
IANAS - I am not a scientist
IANAE - I am not an economist
IANAD - I am not a doctor
IOKIYAC - It's OK if you're a Clinton (or a Christian)
IOKIYT - It's OK if you're Trump
IOKIYR - It's OK if you're rich
No longer relevant? BOB - Bernie or Bust.
"Bros" - derogatory reference to Bernie supporters, the supposed "Bernie Bros" who hate Hillary just because she's female (bros do not exist).
Hill = Hillary (because Bern and Jill)
Hillbots or Hill People = extreme Hillary supporters
TBI - traumatic brain injury
TMI - too much information
That's all I can think of at the moment!
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Oh, elenacarlena, you just made me want a drink lol
Now I know what gulfgal meant by enormous project.
I shall add them.
I'll keep adding for a while, but eventually, I'll have to do some housework, and let the kid on the computer. He wanted on when I started this earlier, so it's only a matter of time before he becomes restless.
Of course, I'll check back in tomorrow if not later this afternoon/night. It's probably best I not do it from my phone. Much easier on my desktop.
Thanks for all the info!
Methinks
that your work on this project may never be done!
You are a brave soul, Deja! 
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
If you think they're too common, please feel free to leave out!
Ah, here's one on the diary list - CGI - Clinton Global Initiative.
Maybe you could make a group out of this diary, to keep it pinned near the top and so others can go in, check it if they're looking for something, and add more in comments when so inclined.
DH - dear husband. You know I never see DW??
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On my phone now
I was half joking. I'm going to do what CoE (CitizenOfEarth) suggested for the basic ones, and list a link or two. But tomorrow, I'll add the other, not so common ones you listed. Plus, I think the orange explanation you and CS in AZ (I think - can only see your comment since I'm replying to you), should somehow be added.
Great idea about the group. JtC mentioned he'd put a link to it somewhere. I guess I'll wait and see what he wants to do. It should be sticky and visible for new users - especially non DKos users. It's like our own language, ya know?
TOP is also sometimes referred to as dark waters, orange
waters, or dangerous waters, because we here are the calm blue waters. I even uploaded a photo just for them:
The crock-infested orange waters
Please check out Pet Vet Help, consider joining us to help pets, and follow me @ElenaCarlena on Twitter! Thank you.
Great job Deja
Thank you for following up for JtC. Great list. The only thing I can think of :
TBTF - too big to fail
"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon
FWIW=
for what it's worth
YMMV=
your mileage may vary
And here's one it took forever for me to figure out:
SMH=shaking my head
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Those are good ones!
I just learned SMH! I've had that said to me and was afraid to ask! They use that a lot OT.
Please check out Pet Vet Help, consider joining us to help pets, and follow me @ElenaCarlena on Twitter! Thank you.
Awesome Job. Cudos Deja.
Awesome Job. Cudos Deja.
For slang phases, I use Urban Dictionary often. Those millennials love their lil sekret phrases.
So might be useful to have a list of links to places to look up stuff. Cause you will never list them all.
Urban Dictionary http://www.urbandictionary.com/
Here's one for tech terms
Tech Dictionary
http://www.techdictionary.com/
Another suggestion. To keep the page from growing too long, you could group the terms that have the same meaning separated by commas.
Example
HRC – Hillary Rodham Clinton , Medusa, Her Heinous , Mad Bomber, Hellery, ...
Donnie The #ShitHole Douchebag. Fake Friend to the Working Class. Real Asshole.
Excellent suggestions, CoE (CitizenofEarth)
I'll start the regrouping now, then go back and add the links and the other add-ons given by others before you.
Thanks!
The teenager is getting restless, I'll have to come back to this
I'll get back to this tomorrow, if not later today, and add more that have been posted in comments. Sorry, but he starts sr. year monday, and wants to play for a bit. He's a good kid, so I'll give in.
Please keep adding suggestions, and looking things over.
Thanks to everyone who's contributed.
I'll be adding links suggested by CitezenOfEarth as well, because I think it's a great idea.
Have a good one, and thanks again!
Nice job, Deja--thanks! (To all who've contributed,as well.) NT
Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.
FWIW (translated above), if you're going to include DSCC,
you might as well include DCCC---Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. Usually called the D triple C or D Trip. There was one I saw earlier with about 10 letters. I had no idea, either by context or trying to figure it out. C'mon folks. Give this old broad a clue.
You are very kind to do this. Thank you.
Agreed, will add when I can get on computer
On my phone now. Tomorrow, I'll have access to my desktop again.
So glad you added DCCC, because I couldn't remember it, or what it stood for.
Thank you!
Aww, deja, you are gorgeous to have taken on the project, thanks
and no steps on my toes at all, you were so kind to overlook that I declined my first offer, after someone suggested, I should go through all the diaries for acronyms to make a list. That scared me so much, I withdrew my offer. All the more kudos to you for not getting intimidated. Your list is great.
I stumbled over BBF and finally looked it up. It stands for "Butt Buddy Forever" ... now as an ESL person I could ask how the Butt comes in there, because if I translate it into German it would be ... oh never mind.
I looked up German internet slang acronmyms. One I liked:
SfH = Schluss fuer heute = enough for today.
https://www.euronews.com/live
Butt Buddies Forever LMAO!
Posting from my phone (not going to edit my essay from it).
If I had seen BBF, I'd have thought it was a typo of BFF (best friends forever). Like when I see someone type "opps " instead of oops. My phone won't even let me type opps without the space before the closing quotation mark.
I'm not going to look through all comments in all essays. Completely ridiculous. Ain't gonna happen.
Glad I didn't step on your toes.
I'll say, TTFN (Ta ta for now).
Mimi, I just use TTFN
ta ta for now.
There is no such thing as TMI. It can always be held in reserve for extortion.
For a very long list of military acronyms
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._government_and_military_acronyms
I like this one for LN (Little Napoleon)
HMFIC – Head Motherfucker In Charge – colloquialism for the highest-ranking person present; more commonly used by NCO's than by officers (U.S. Military)
To thine own self be true.
CCDS - Clinton Cognitive Dissonance Syndrome
SCROTUS- Supreme Court Republicans of the United States
"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." - JFK | "The more I see of the moneyed peoples, the more I understand the guillotine." - G. B. Shaw Bernie/Tulsi 2020
MSNBC - Must Show No Bernie Coverage
"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." - JFK | "The more I see of the moneyed peoples, the more I understand the guillotine." - G. B. Shaw Bernie/Tulsi 2020
Also
Must Say Nothing Bad about Clinton
"Please clap." -- Jeb Bush
/s = snark n/t
'What we are left with is an agency mandated to ensure transparency and disclosure that is actually working to keep the public in the dark' - Ann M. Ravel, former FEC member
HFK == henry fucking kissinger
The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.
Thank you, Brave and Energetic Soul!
I have already learned a lot from your current list. I once asked what LOF was and was told Little Orange Footballs but nothing about what it meant which totally changes my understanding of its use.
I sincerely hope that having a list will not be taken as permission to use acronyms in general without spelling them out first. I am guessing that those who want to be taken seriously will make an effort to spell out acronyms in their first use.
I didn't see this one in the list or comments, so pardon me if someone has already said it:
FSM which I believe a lot of people use for Flying Spaghetti Monster; although it has other meanings as well. It took me a long time to figure this one out even though I had heard of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. I just did not connect it to whatever was being said until I realized the posters were using it in place of "Oh, God!" as an exclamation.
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.--Aristotle
If there is no struggle there is no progress.--Frederick Douglass
Thank you for doing this Deja!
I'd hate to see this list become something one has to hunt for. Can it be added to the navigation somewhere? Under 'Community Content' maybe--or anywhere else where it's always visible?
Excellent n/t
Beware the bullshit factories.
my suggestion
Don't use an acronym to define an acronym!!!
Example: OT - Over There (TOP) AAAAGH!
Think of the audience for this. If they don't know what OT means, they probably don't know what TOP means either!
I would define OT as having a c99 insider meaning (Daily Kos) and a general internet meaning (off topic).
Thanks very very much for taking on this project!
I thought about that, but it's in the list
Plus, I'm getting tired of sitting here. My eyes are crossing, even with my fancy sun glasses.
If I feel like tweaking it next weekend, I will. I can't do anything online at work, and after work, I'm too tired to do much of anything. Maybe comment from my phone, but certainly not sit at my desktop.
sorry
I didn't mean to harass; just my editing genes coming thru. It's a hereditary defect...
No problem, sillia
I apologize if I came across harshly. That wasn't my intent.
I'm on my phone now. Believe it, or not, I was once a bonafide proofreader for a semi weekly newspaper in the birthplace of Dan Rather. That was when actual cutting and pasting took place (complete with razor blades, brush paste bottles, and light boxes).
The word processing software was archaic and buggy, even for a time when most people didn't even have dial-up.
The writers weren't making tons of mistakes, the software was. Find a mistake, after having read the hard copy article top to bottom (flow/grammar), then bottom to top (backwards), one word at a time (spelling), and mark it. Then send it back to production. Correction made. Repeat both steps of proofreading process only to find a random, unrelated mistake, far away from the original one that had been corrected that was not there the first time. Madness!
I was going to add two to my list:
DFH = Dirty Fucking Hippy
RWNJ = Right-Wing Nut Job
Those were popular acronyms at TOP, and I think I have seen them here from time to time.
Good work, BTW!
"All Life is Problem Solving" - Karl Popper