Oh great, now I have to remember how to spell “abbreviations”. Stands4 has bought the Abbreviations.com domain name and has relaunched under that name and with some new services.

From the front page ( at Abbreviations.com , natch) you’ll see an abbreviation category browser or keyword search. You can also do reverse lookup if you want. A search for PERL found ten results (Physical Education Running Lads?)

In addition to finding abbreviations, the site also has resources for conversions, zip code lookup, and what appears to be a mirror of the DMOZ directory. Yick. Why are sites still using that? You’d think that someone out there would build an extractor script that crawls Wikipedia and turns THAT into a searchable subject index.

There’s also an “expressions” search at Abbreviation.com. I was particularly interested in this because I have my HH. The little HH on my driver’s license means I’ve got my Hick Homilies certification in this state. They give you a big booklet to study, and you have to be able to identify the meaning of at least 20 homespun phrases on a test, and then use at least five of them in a conversation without laughing or making the other person’s head explode. The advanced certification, which I took, also requires that you be able to whistle the theme to the “Andy Griffith Show” and know all the words to “Ramblin’ Man.”

(The HH doesn’t confer many practical benefits, but I am entitled to free sweet tea at 500 locations throughout the southeast and an annual cookbook of kudzu recipes.)

So I figured I could find some useful expressions here. Unfortunately this directory is a little thin (790 entries), and sometimes the definitions didn’t make much sense to me (The definition for “Bear Market” had me very confused.)

Users are invited to become editors of the directory — applications are here. Editors get a free t-shirt.

The abbreviations are fine as frog hair. Unfortunately, the expressions section needs a lot of fleshing out, as sure as a goose goes barefoot.

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