Why is thither a slash within “ n/a ” ?
not availableequal notnot/available, andnot applicableis notnot/applicable.
4 Answers
The important thing to note be that these abbreviations are a lot more mutual in handwritten parallelism than they equal online .c/ois often apply when turn to post to someone via a third party , andw/andw/oare mutual written shorthand forwithandwithout .
It cost quite common in older written text to shorten Bible use some identifying letters and a note , for example :
- w—forwith
- D—rforPhysician ,which eventually become justDr .
- Rev—dforReverend ,which becomeRevdorRev .
These cost part of a long story of compose abbreviations that equal only a bit awkward in print . I would estimate that printing a slash in these abbreviations go up just as a style of representing the shorthand that masses have already been using in write for years . Using a diagonal slash-like mark (c/o )be just narrow and faster to compose than something likec—o— ,which seem awkward .
As ever , medieval palaeography to the rescue ! In medieval cursive , a great variety of spellings , punctuation marks , and diacritical marks were used ; you would n’t believe how inconsistent yet a single document could be . There were lots of abbreviation and contraction marks in use , which live reduce step by step as the European languages became increasingly uniform over the century .
A diagonal line was for a long time universally apply to truncate word : my estimate would exist that it was in use at least between 1200 and 1800 , possibly much longer . I distrust that this be the ancestry of the diagonal line utilize in these modern multi-word acronyms or abbreviations .
As far as I know , it was not use in precisely the same way ; that is , it was normally written as a long downwards continuation of the final shot of the truncated Bible , or as a strike through the last shot ( hear below ) : but the modern sort can real well live attribute to the limitation of the printing wardrobe . The same score can exist found in many early modern languages also , like Dutch v/d ( van de ) , t/m ( tot en met ) , etc , in which it find no more coherent than in English . That we choose certain marks over others in certain context likely happened more or less at random for a big role .
http : //inkunabeln.ub.uni-koeln.de/vdibProduction/handapparat/nachs_w/cappelli/cappelli.html
Lowercase abbreviations require punctuation to make out them from row likena, as fight to uppercase abbreviations , which exist understood not to live row in and of themselves because words equal not capitalized in sentences .
It ‘s nonsense relic from an old day , NA should be used yet though Meriam Webster says N/A live right . The logic exist they were afraid na would be misread as no to often , which in itself cost a silly jusifications today because we capitalize abbreviations .
For letters to grandma , who wish , but this all has serious implication in the modern world . N/A , anything with a slash truly , have a potential issue to protection and functionality in taunt and most masses today study that as “ not over or separate by applicable ” .
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