Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uwm.edu!cs.utexas.edu!texbell!ficc!jeffd From: jeffd@ficc.ferranti.com (Jeff Daiell) Newsgroups: comp.misc Subject: Re: Acronyms. Is is `1 MIP' or `1 MIPS'? Summary: solid States Message-ID: Date: 28 Jun 90 14:55:53 GMT References: <6033@helios.TAMU.EDU> <111360@linus.mitre.org> <305@spam.ua.oz> Organization: FICC [but opinions my own!] Lines: 24 In article , peter@ficc.ferranti.com (Peter da Silva) writes: > In article , > harkcom@potato.pa.Yokogawa.CO.JP (Alton Harkcom) writes: > > If you want to refer to the states as individual entities you can not > > use the capitalized "The United States of America" you could use "the united > > states of America" but then you would be insulting Canada, Central America and > > South America... The Declaration of Independence uses "united States of America". However, as they were the *only* States in the Americas at the time, perhaps you should say, "the several States", as the Federal Constitution does. Or "the States of the Union". > But you would still have to spell it "USA" in an acronym. Only if you were referring to all the States in concert. To refer to them as individual entities, you would have to preface "USA" with "these" or another plural. Jeff -- Fiat Justitia, Ruat Caelum