All things being equal
Evan Zabawski | TLT From the Editor December 2013
Sometimes it isn’t what it looks like.
If ISO is not an acronym, then what is it?
WE LOVE TLAs (THREE-LETTER ACRONYMS). Now I am not referring to the kind of pseudo-acronyms that predominate in the world of texting, like LOL, IDK or IMO; those are initialisms. To qualify as an acronym, it must be pronounced as a single word, rather than a series of initials.
Our world is filled with initialisms. Our society name is an initialism, and the very name of this magazine is too. We have become accustomed to using initialisms in everyday language, but we often mistakenly call them acronyms.
Initialisms can become so popular that they can be officially adopted as a replacement of the long form name such as SAE. The Society of Automobile Engineers was formed in 1905, then changed to the Society of Automotive Engineers in 1916, and changed once again to SAE International in 2006. SAE was once an initialism and now it is not, but it was never an acronym.
Some acronyms become so popular that we almost forget their origin such as Scuba (Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus) or Laser (Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation). This can be compounded when the acronym is not only made up of initial letters, but also contains non-initial letters. Radar (RAdio Detection And Ranging) and Sonar (SOund Navigation And Ranging) are classic examples. A lesser-known example would be surfactant (SURFace ACTive agENT).
Proper TLAs are formed with initial letters only. They are particularly associated with computing such as DOS, GUI, RAM or ROM (Disk Operating System, Graphical User Interface, Random Access Memory and Read- Only Memory, respectively). Oddly enough, the term TLA is actually an initialism to describe an acronymization. I digress.
Perhaps the oddest case in the world of lubrication is ISO, used predominantly when describing the viscosity grade of industrial oils (ISO VG 46) or sometimes referring to the coding level of contamination by solid particles (ISO 18/16/13). I find most folks pronounce ISO as “I.S.O.,” rather than “eye-so.” The former suggests it is an initialism, and while the latter is correct pronunciation, ISO is not actually an acronym.
ISO is known globally as the largest standards developing organization in the world, and it is the result of a merger between two organizations in February 1947. The International Federation of the National Standardizing Associations (ISA, founded in 1926) merged with the relatively new United Nations Standards Coordinating Committee (UNSCC, founded in 1944) after delegates from 25 countries met in London. The three official languages of ISO are English, French and Russian, but ISO’s name would have different acronyms in each language.
Its English name is actually The International Organization for Standardization, and it is often assumed ISO is the acronym for the French name, given the proclivity of English and French names using similar words in alternate order. Bilingual countries like Canada experience this regularly. A popular example would be the name of the national mail delivery service—Canada Post/Postes Canada. ISO’s French name is actually Organisation Internationale de Normalisation, so its acronym would be OIN.
If ISO is not an acronym, then what is it? ISO chose its short name from the Greek word isos, meaning equal. Perhaps this triggers a memory of learning what a triangle with two equal sides is called—isosceles. For an organization set on creating global standards to ensure equality from nation to nation, the name ISO seems very fitting.
So if you know anyone who would be enlightened by this article, please feel free to forward it to them, ASAP.
Evan Zabawski, CLS, is a reliability specialist in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. You can reach him at evan.zabawski@gmail.com.