Abbreviations, Words Compounded of

compound words formed from component designations and terms by abbreviating all or some of the component words. There are five basic types of words compounded of abbreviations:

(1) those formed from the initial sounds of words or the names of the initial letters of words, including abbreviations that are read as words, such as vuz (vysshee uchebnoe zavedenie [“higher educational institution”]) and MKhAT (Moskovskii khudozhestvennyi teatr [“Moscow Art Theater”]); abbreviations read letter by letter, such as TsK (tse-ka; from Tsentral’nyi Komitet [“Central Committee”]); and abbreviations read partly as words and partly letter by letter, such as TsDSA (tse-de-sa; from Tsentral’nyi dom Sovetskoi Armii [“Central House of the Soviet Army”]) and TsDRI (tse-dri; from Tsentral’nyi dom robotnikov iskusstv [“Central House of Art Workers”]);

(2) those formed from the beginning parts of words, such as mestkom (mestnyi komitet [“local committee”]) and prodmag (prodovol’stvennyi magazin [“grocery store”]);

(3) those combining elements of the first two types, such as gorono (gorodskoi otdel narodnogo obrazovaniia [“city department of public education”]) and IMLl (Institut mirovoi literatury [“Institute of World Literature”]);

(4) those formed by combining the beginning of one word with the beginning and end (or only the end) of another word, as in moped (“moped”; from mototsikl-velosiped [“motorcycle-bicycle”]) and esminets (“destroyer”; from eskadrennyi minonosets [“squadron torpedo boat”]); and

(5) those formed by combining the beginning part of one or more words with a whole word, as in zapchasti (zapasnye chasti [“spare parts”]), roddom (roldil’nyi dom [“maternity hospital”]), and komroty (komandir roty [“company commander”]).

Not all the words that constitute a complete designation are necessarily included in an abbreviation, and word order may be changed, as in Gosplan (Gosudarstvennyi planovyi komitet [“State Planning Committee”]) and kozhimit (imitatsiia kozhi [“imitation leather”]).

Words compounded of abbreviations are widely used in official business documents in many languages of the world.