Britannica Student Encyclopedia - 2010

add numbers

almost as fast

as a person

with a pocket

calculator.

The abacus is an ancient device to help

solve math problems.

BRITANNICA STUDENT ENCYCLOPEDIA Abbreviation 7

 

tion ad for the word advertising, for

example.

There are a few different kinds of abbreviations.

People often abbreviate words

by writing only the first letter, one or a

few other letters in the word, and a

period. For instance, the word teaspoon

is abbreviated as “tsp.”

People abbreviate phrases by writing

only the first letter of each word. This

type of abbreviation is usually written in

capital letters with no periods between

them. For example, the abbreviation for

“as soon as possible” is ASAP.

One of the most common types of

abbreviation is called an acronym. Acronyms

combine the first letters of a group

of words to create a new word. NASA,

which stands for National Aeronautics

and Space Administration, is an acronym.

It is pronounced “NA-suh,” not

“N-A-S-A.”

Some Common Abbreviations

AD anno Domini (in the year of

the Lord)

AM ante meridiem (before noon)

Ave. Avenue

BC before Christ

Blvd. Boulevard

C Celsius, centigrade

CD-ROM compact disc read-only

memory

cm, m, km centimeter, meter, kilometer

Dr. Doctor

DVD digital videodisc

F Fahrenheit

ft foot, feet

g, kg gram, kilogram

IOU I Owe You

Jr. Junior

l liter

mph miles per hour

no. numero (number)

oz. ounce

PM post meridiem (after noon)

Rd. Road

Sr. Senior

St. Saint, Street

vs. versus (against)

U.S. Postal Codes

AK Alaska

AL Alabama

AR Arkansas

AZ Arizona

CA California

CO Colorado

CT Connecticut

DC District of Columbia

DE Delaware

FL Florida

GA Georgia

HI Hawaii

IA Iowa

ID Idaho

IL Illinois

IN Indiana

KS Kansas

KY Kentucky

LA Louisiana

MA Massachusetts

MD Maryland

ME Maine

MI Michigan

MN Minnesota

MO Missouri

MS Mississippi

MT Montana

NC North Carolina

ND North Dakota

NE Nebraska

NH New Hampshire

NJ New Jersey

NM New Mexico

NV Nevada

NY New York

OH Ohio

OK Oklahoma

OR Oregon

PA Pennsylvania

RI Rhode Island

SC South Carolina

SD South Dakota

TN Tennessee

TX Texas

UT Utah

VA Virginia

VT Vermont

WA Washington

WI Wisconsin

WV West Virginia

WY Wyoming

8 Abbreviation BRITANNICA STUDENT ENCYCLOPEDIA

 

Some acronyms become so common

that they begin to be used as real words

rather than as abbreviations. The word

laser started out as an acronym. Its full

scientific meaning is “light amplification

by stimulated emission of radiation.”

Abernathy, Ralph

Ralph Abernathy was a leader of the civil

rights movement in the United States.

He worked closely with Martin Luther

King, Jr.

Ralph David Abernathy was born on

March 11, 1926, in Linden, Alabama. In

1948 he became a minister in the Baptist

church. In 1950 he graduated from Alabama

State University with a degree in

mathematics. Then he studied sociology

at Atlanta University in Atlanta, Georgia.

In 1951 Abernathy became pastor of the

First Baptist Church in Montgomery,

Alabama. A few years later he met Martin

Luther King, Jr. The two men began

fighting laws that kept blacks and whites

separated.

One such law forced blacks and whites

to sit in separate parts of buses. In 1955

Abernathy and King organized a protest

of the Montgomery bus system. Blacks

refused to ride the buses until the seating

rules were changed. This protest

helped start the civil rights movement.

In 1957 King and Abernathy started the

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

(SCLC). The SCLC was an organization

that worked to win equal rights

for blacks. After King was murdered in

1968, Abernathy became president of

the SCLC.

Abernathy resigned as president of the

SCLC in 1977. Then he went back to

being a pastor in Atlanta. He died there

on April 17, 1990.

#More to explore

Civil Rights Movement • King, Martin

Luther, Jr.

Abidjan

Population

(2005 estimate)

urban area,

3,576,000

Abidjan is the largest city of Cote d’Ivoire

inWest Africa. It was the country’s

capital until 1983. Then Yamoussoukro

was made the capital. Even after that

Ralph Abernathy

BRITANNICA STUDENT ENCYCLOPEDIA Abidjan 9

 

date, however, Abidjan remained the site

of most government functions.

Abidjan is located in the southern part

of the country. It has a port even though

it is separated from the Atlantic Ocean

by a sandbar. The Vridi Canal connects

the port to the sea.

Because of the port, Abidjan is a center

ofWest African trade. Cocoa, coffee,

timber, bananas, pineapples, and fish are

shipped from the port. The city also

manufactures beer, soap, matches, and

automobiles.

Abidjan became the capital of the

French colony of Ivory Coast in 1934.

Ivory Coast became the independent

country of Cote d’Ivoire in 1960.

Abidjan remained the capital.

#More to explore

Cote d’Ivoire • Yamoussoukro

Abnaki

The Abnaki (or Abenaki) were a group

of Native American tribes who originally

lived in what are now New England and

eastern Canada. They included the Passamaquoddy,

the Penobscot, and the

Pennacook.

The Abnaki hunted animals such as

bear, deer, and moose in the forests.

They fished in lakes and rivers. The

coastal tribes caught lobsters and gathered

oysters and clams. The southern

tribes planted fields of corn, squash, and

beans.

The Abnaki generally lived in small

bands of related families. Bands lived