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I understand the abbreviations S for Son, D For Daughter, but why are they used? And when did the use of them come in to being? Did some one on CC one day just start replacing there sons with S's and Daughters with D's and it just caught on?

By Soozievt (Soozievt) on Thursday, October 07, 2004 - 08:17 am: Edit

I don't know how it started but it is not uncommon on the internet to use little abbreviations for words that are used often. Here, we all mention the son or daughter often and it is just a quickie way to write it. Since we are not using their first names, we are just abbreviating referring to them. Actually the use of S and D are not just abbreviations used on this forum. Sometimes in school settings when wanting to remain confidential on some document, an initial for the child's name is used (i.e., S for Susan) and so S and D are along those lines.

However, I don't know why kids on here find the use of S and D a little odd because if you look at the NUMEROUS abbreviations that kids use when typing on the internet in such things like IMs, it is SO commonplace that you don't see normal English too often.....such as btw, wtf, u, cya, and so forth. So, I guess us parents here when having to type the same word over and over again and need something to stand for our child's real names, have adopted S and D for that purpose.

CYA,
Susan

By Emeraldkity4 (Emeraldkity4) on Thursday, October 07, 2004 - 10:44 am: Edit

I used to use AOHELL for my web access,and web shorthand is very common although they prefaced with D for Dear, hence DS, DH , DD.
My daughter spends so much time using shorthand in her IMs to friends I am grateful she still can write.
( it taught her the keyboard though)

By Demingy (Demingy) on Thursday, October 07, 2004 - 11:08 am: Edit

Why the Y?

Just kidding. I've been in many forums and abbreviating son and daughter (and husband or wife) with the first letter is actually a very common internet thing. Very similar to LOL (and the hundreds of other shorthand used). A friend of mine uses so much internet shorthand that I have a problem reading some of his emails....and it is even more difficult because he is a bad typist so there's a lot of typos.

By Dmd77 (Dmd77) on Thursday, October 07, 2004 - 11:39 am: Edit

After years of writing email and instant messages (IMs), I thought I knew them all. Ran into a new one: TIA.

Thanks In Advance.

I always thought the D is DD, DS, and DH stood for "darling" and was intended ironically when used. Perhaps I've been overanalysing.

I do notice that BTW has made it into spoken language.

By Voronwe (Voronwe) on Thursday, October 07, 2004 - 11:47 am: Edit

"YMMV" was very popular on the internet before there was even a World Wide Web (which started aorund '92 or so)- it means "your mileage may vary" or in other words, your experience may be different.

I always like "wysiwyg" (pronounced wissy-wig) for "what you see is what you get," and GIGO for "garbage in, garbage out" - self-explanatory!

By Thedad (Thedad) on Thursday, October 07, 2004 - 11:52 am: Edit

I think it's possible that I may have started the shorthand on CC about 2-1/2 years ago.

I had written a post about my D's college application process--probably something like her reactions to a campus visit--on another board where True Names are known and people mostly know each other by first names.

After writing the post there, I thought it would be a good thing to post here but I wanted to preserve anonymity. So I substituted "D" or "my D" for her name in each occurrence of the post. Once I did that the first time, it kind of stuck. Always saying "the daughter" or "my daughter" just seemed tedious.

Voronwe: then there's WANGLYDIAPLT...what's a nice girl (guy) like you doing in a place like this? I've known that one for 25 years, at least.

By Voronwe (Voronwe) on Thursday, October 07, 2004 - 11:59 am: Edit

Thedad:

:-)

By Dadofsam (Dadofsam) on Thursday, October 07, 2004 - 01:16 pm: Edit

Youse guys may be forgetting the abbreviation that was widespread when I wuz a hi school studint in Noo Yawk many yrs ago (maybe still in use) - SWAK.

By Dudedad (Dudedad) on Thursday, October 07, 2004 - 01:27 pm: Edit

CYA = Cover Your Ass?

By Dmd77 (Dmd77) on Thursday, October 07, 2004 - 02:28 pm: Edit

TANSTAAFL

There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch

(from Ringworld, by Larry Niven, probably earlier than that too--but Niven uses it as a swear word, along with)

TANJ

There Ain't No Justice

By Dadofsam (Dadofsam) on Thursday, October 07, 2004 - 02:45 pm: Edit

Far as I know TANSTAAFL was first used by Robert Heinlein in "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress".

By Digmedia (Digmedia) on Thursday, October 07, 2004 - 05:32 pm: Edit

The discussion about S and D made me smile when I remembered a story from long ago: I was teaching high school in an all black, inner-city high school. Each year the school board gerrymandered the boundaries to try to get white students to come to the school - all with zero success. On the first day of class, the principal - thinking he was using a clever code - came on the intercom and said: "Teachers, we need an accurate count of the number of B's and the number of W's in youur class." The kids themselves looked around and said, "Well, Mr. D, no W's again this year!"

By Digmedia (Digmedia) on Thursday, October 07, 2004 - 05:37 pm: Edit

TheDad -

As a now old-timer here, I'll second your "confession." The first time I ever saw D used was in a post of yours, but that doesn't necessarily mean that it was the first. Could be yours was one of the first posts I read when I got here.

-digi

By Dmd77 (Dmd77) on Thursday, October 07, 2004 - 07:17 pm: Edit

DadofSam--Thanks for the Heinlein reference. Yes, that TANSTAAFL reference would certainly predate Niven--and also puts Ringworld into the Heinlein timeline, which makes sense ;-)

By Aparent4 (Aparent4) on Thursday, October 07, 2004 - 07:27 pm: Edit

On some other parent-inhabited boards, people use "dd" and "ds." Means "dear" or "darling" son or daughter. Also used for spouse! I started doing that here out of habit and then noticed that I was the only one...

By Cheers (Cheers) on Thursday, October 07, 2004 - 09:34 pm: Edit

this is so helpful! I was trying to wrok out if it had something to do with Step-daughter/son....

By Thedad (Thedad) on Thursday, October 07, 2004 - 09:55 pm: Edit

Dmd77, while Niven respected Heinlein very much, they never pre-dated though it's possible they may have had a couple of cups of coffee together.

The afterthought to TANSTAAFL is "Otherwise the drinks wouldn't cost half as much." I've been thinking of reading TMIAM again, haven't read it in decades. I first read it as a teen--the Golden Age of Science Fiction is 14--and I'm a bit hesitant because I've found going back to old faves can make me wince when I see the holes and deficiencies that I didn't see when I was younger.

Btw, the well-read SF reader will sit bolt upright at my use of the phrase "True Names" on this board. From one of the seminal stories about on-line communities, written before the explosion of the Internet in, I think, the early 1980's.

By Dmd77 (Dmd77) on Thursday, October 07, 2004 - 11:13 pm: Edit

TheDad: The only science fiction that I loved *then* that I'm not embarassed by *now* is John Varley's. Even Niven horrifies me. I haven't read much scifi since a massive binge of historical scifi in the late '70s--I read the entirety of a list someone prepared of "the top 500 science fiction books in history." (I had a great/boring job: among other things, I did a lot of program compiles that had to be monitored, slowly... so I had literally hours to read while I was at work, because there literally wasn't anything else I *could* do.)

My son has fallen for scifi big-time, and I've tried to read the stuff--Neal Stephenson and so on--but I find it tedious, I'm afraid.

Oh, and LOL about Heinlein and Niven pre-dating. Don't want to let that go by, even if it's a bit...

By Thedad (Thedad) on Friday, October 08, 2004 - 01:56 am: Edit

Nods to taste wrt Varley.

I can compartmentalize: Niven is a so-so writer who's a very good story teller much of the time.
Same as Heinlein, Asimov, though all three turned out stinkers now and then.

I'd recommend Vernor Vinge's TRUE NAMES, a short novel or long novella; one of his early works but nicely illuminating about on-line communities.

If I could pick writers that I would like to write like, it would be John LeCarre, Mary Renault, and Robertson Davies...nary an SF writer in the bunch.