[paulgiamatti]

Originally Posted by WizardEQ [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Fo'c's'le is a correct "word" meaning forecastle. Sailors would know the former, but may not know the latter. However, few others know this word and most would say it isn't a word.

Well, it's also still a contraction. Traditionally contractions are only meant to combine and shorten two separate words, but there are exceptions where the two words being contracted have already been condensed into one composite word - "cannot" becomes "can't", for example. In your example, the words "fore" and "castle" have already been condensed into one word, so the contraction serves more as an abbreviation of a single word rather than a connecting point between two separate words. You can drop any one or two of those apostrophes and the word is still just as technically "correct".

Originally Posted by WizardEQ [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I posit that is more screwed up than using duo'd or cc'd which are not words in the traditional sense.

I disagree, because all of the contracted versions of "forecastle" are serving the purpose of abbreviation. Nothing is being subtracted from "duo'd", or "solo'd", or "CC'd", so I'd take the hard line that they aren't contractions and that contractions simply can't be used to abbreviate words in the past tense, because all you'd be doing is replacing one letter with an apostrophe.

Originally Posted by WizardEQ [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Language is a living, breathing organism that adapts to what people are willing to accept during certain times.

Absolutely - I just need at least some kind of functionality in order to accept a colloquial word. "Gonna", "shoulda", "prolly", et al make perfect sense to me because they're easier to speak or write. I suppose you could argue that within the context of some EQ acronyms, an apostrophe is more understandable. "CCed that mob" might prompt someone to wonder exactly what "crowd control education" entails, or how one might educate this NPC in the ways of crowd control. Also, you could argue that the apostrophe is better when using variable-width fonts simply by virtue of saving millimeters in screen space.

Originally Posted by WizardEQ [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I'm all for correct, proper English. But when it comes to rolling out a text or a PM, why not abbreviate if everyone knows what you're trying to convey?

Because a lot of the time (I just visualized an Alot made out of time) they aren't abbreviations. If you can be proper without sacrificing efficiency or comprehensibility, then why not be proper?