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Where did the abbreviation "w/" for "with" come from?
(lemmy.world)
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this post was submitted on 29 Oct 2023
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All in all, the / is just one style of abbreviation used in English. It's not only used for "with", but also a few other words (w/o = without, N/A = not applicable).
In German we abbreviate using a dot (e.g. "m." = "mit" = "with). That's not more or less intuitive, it's just what you are used to.
What's kinda special with English is that there are multiple abbreviation styles. Off the top of my head I can think of six styles:
Don’t forget re: which means regarding or in reference to, not reply.
... I think it's actually a Latin word, "re,", meaning, "the matter (subject)" not an abbreviation at all.
yeah this is a real pet peeve of mine.
In German many people, web mailers and also sometimes even email software use "AW:" (short for AntWort) instead of "Re:" and then some of them don't even recognize the existence of a previous "AW:" or "Re:" giving you such wondrous email subjects as: "AW: Re: AW: Re: AW: AW: Re: AW: Re: really important subject" 🤦
Oh, that totally works with a single language too: "Re: Re: Re:..." or "AW: AW: AW:..." seen both of that often enough.
yes indeed. i keep being confused how email can still suck so much sometimes when it had decades to mature.
Massive amounts of federation ;)
It's really hard to get thousands of software development companies, hundreds of thousands of hosters and billions of users to unitedly go for a new thing.
It would make much more sense these days to simply leave the subject line intact then have the mail client display the “reply” or “forwarded” lingo on its own.
It’s a computer so it should be smart enough to know what’s happening by looking at the headers. I never understand when we make computers do stupid things instead of actually programming them to be smart. Otherwise what’s the point of using them?
Ah, yes, you get forwards from my boomer-aged father, too!
The Foreword? Or is that answer? Forward in English would be the author's message at the beginning of a book.