explain abbreviations please

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ok, obviously this is something you are all hip to, but I sometimes read things in the parents' forum and it drives me crazy - what does DS (for example, or DH - husband?) mean? I know it's "son" but .. "darling son" ?? "dear son" ??? so bizarre.

why not just say "son" ? this is obviously some internet discussion forum abbreviation that is really well known and typical on parents' boards, but I don't get it! - what it stands for or why it is so ubiquitous.

Will someone explain?
thanks.

D usually stands for "dear", and as you guessed the DS, DD, DH, and DW would be dear son, daughter, husband, and wife. You'll find it standard throughout all Internet forums.

My guess is that the convention came about because if you just use a single letter, that is usually taken to be an abbreviation for someone's name when you want to keep some level of anonyminity. For instance you'd write about a fight between J and K instead of John and Karl.

People will also append numbers, either 1 and 2 to indicate birth order of same sex siblings, or to give the age of the child. DSS7 would be dear step son who is 7 years old. X is sometimes used for ex- in cases of divorce.

thank you

Ha ha, yeah these abbreviations drive me nuts too. I suppose they are supposed to be cute or something...

IKWYM. IDK why people do it either. They could just write properly, couldn't they? But no. Annoying baffling acronyms FTW.



"FTW" annoys me most of all.

I just don't understand the "dear" part. No one talks that way, why do we need an abbreviation of it?

It's just one of those things that a minority of people started doing and then the rest all followed them like sheep.

Yeah they get me too! Took me a while to figure them out. Doesnt DX mean diagnosis too? I think it gets more complicated on thisparticular forum as we all talk about ASDs, ADHD, PND lol

Wow I thought the D was "diagnosed" as in "DS "Diagnosed son"

I think also it is easy to type son, but daughter, husband, mother in law, etc...are longer words. If I talk about my husband and refer to him as L, no one would know what that meant! It is good to have universal abbreviations, even if they arent always DEAR to us...lol.


I can go to any board and write DH and most will know that is referring to my husband, but if I wrote L, people would be guessing!

thats my take on it

I always assumed that the Dx abbreviation for diagnosis was a take on the Rx abbreviation for prescription - neither word has an X in it.

To me the even more complicated abbreviations are when you start to talk about special needs in the US public schools, IDEA, IEP, FBA, BIP, ABA ...

Well, you've answered your own questions, abbreviations are quicker to type DH rather than my husband each time - hence, abbreviation. If you don't like them, don't use them

THANK YOU!! !!

I was completely baffled by these as well!

Mystery solved!