Jump to content

Recommended Posts

SCOTUS = Supreme Court of the United States.

 

It is one of those annoyingly "hip" abbreviations that I think is used more by journalists than by lawyers. (I've been both, something I probably shouldn't admit to around here.) "SCOTUS" is not sufficiently "respectful" for use in formal legal writing. I always write out "Supreme Court," and in a brief to a state court, I precede that with "U.S." to distinguish it from the state supreme court.

 

SCOTUS, by the way, rhymes with POTUS, a somewhat rarer but still annoying abbreviation for President of the United States. As opposed to The Presidents of the United States of America, which, my children tell me, is a current rock group. (Though my kids would probably snicker at the dated term "rock group," like I used to snicker when my parents called the Beatles a "singing group.")

 

Let's hope that SCOTUS and POTUS don't have any cousins that I don't know about. It's all too cute for me.

Link to post
Share on other sites

This use of acronymns in American English really got a big push during WWII (World War II), often with humorous results. My favorite is acronymn that was almost adopted for the US forces advising and training the new South Vietnamese military in the mid and late 50's. Some humorist suggested calling the new headquarters "Supreme Headquarters Interallied Training Command." It almost got adopted before somebody actually wrote it down on a piece of paper and looked at it.

 

Acronymns do have their uses.

Link to post
Share on other sites

::ROFL:: NJCub MHOTY OIC its WYSIWYG without your guys I would be SITD about a lot of things. AAMOF if it werent for poster on the WWW, I would be clueless over the P&P of G2SS and what the BSA VIPs are up to at HQ in Irving. I mean as a UC I deal with the SM,ASM, JASM, SPL, ASPL, PL, PLC, and APL as well as the CC and CM's. Did I tell you guys my son is on JLTC staff? Do you think we could add a FAQ section to the forum where we could give our opinions once on a topic and have newbies read it before we go over the same turf all the time. IAC, FWIW, MGB, and TTFN.

 

I am off to summercamp on sunday, maybe I can learn to SCUBA and operate fish finding SONAR and learn the principles of RADAR

 

(Dedicated Dad, come back, LTNS)(This message has been edited by OldGreyEagle)

Link to post
Share on other sites

You should try working for NASA. They'll bury an acronym inside another acronym that's buried inside yet another acronym.

 

Like PRS, which stands for the PORTS Replacement System,

PORTS being the POCC Operational Requirements and Test System,

POCC being the Payload Operations Control Center.

 

It takes about six months just to come up to speed so one can understand what is being said in a meeting.

 

Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...