Once upon a time...well, it was over a year ago, anyway, I posted a
public domain database of acronyms and abbreviations.  Since then,
I've made many additions myself, and received submissions from a few
alert readers.  I've finally gotten around to incorporating these
additions, fixing typos, deleting duplicates, and generally assuring
the quality of the database.  The first version contained something 
like 2800 entries.  The new version is almost twice the size, at 5877 
entries.  

Database entries are in the format:

        ACRON<TAB>- Expansion of Acronym, "pref.us." (hint) [class]

Where:
        ACRON consists entirely of uppercase letters and digits, even
            if the acronym or abbreviation uses other characters
            (this makes lookups easier)
        uppercase letters in the expansion indicate which letters
            formed the acronym (usually)
        "pref.us." contains the preferred capitalization/punctuation,
            if any (especially handy for abbrevs.)
        (hint) provides some clue about the meaning/usage (optional)
        [class] indicates something about whether the acronym refers
            to a specific field, agency, company, etc. (optional)

You can use grep or search to look up acronyms, but if you're on a
UNIX system the handy "whats" shell script provided is better because
it understands the file format (making searches more effective) and
also makes it very easy to add entries to your personal database.

Additions, corrections, and suggestions are welcome.  I'll even try to
do another update in less than a year.  :-)  But, *please* don't send
me the complete database with a few (or a few hundred) changes: just
send me the new/modified entries.

-- 
Dave Sill (de5@ornl.gov)           For every Bill Joy there is a Kirk McKusick.
Martin Marietta Energy Systems     For every Bill Gates there is a Richard
Workstation Support                Stallman.                     --Paul Graham

