An Analysis of Abbreviations in Terminological Dictionaries

Abstract

In this article, we analyzed abbreviations in terminology, in particular their presentation in terminological dictionaries. Abbreviations are the most common shortened forms of terms in the dictionaries reviewed; other shortened forms are abbreviations with full stops and symbols. The number of abbreviations in terminological dictionaries is relatively small in absolute terms. The dictionary that stands out based on the quantity of abbreviations is the Farmacevtski termi­nološki slovar: 2., dopolnjena in pregledana izdaja (Pharmaceutical terminological dictionary, 2nd edition ). The analysis shows that abbreviations in the dictionaries reviewed are mostly formed from English and Slovenian terms. There are more abbreviations from English terms than from Slovenian terms in absolute number; however, a more detailed analysis shows that the origin of abbreviations depends a great deal on the field of expertise.