What do these three letters stand for?
[ 2006-04-28 11:27 ]
The international morse code distress signal,
S.O.S., is another " word" with a false acronymic origin. S.O.S.
does not stand for Save Our Souls, Save Our Ship, Stop Other
Signals, Sure Of Sinking, or any other phrase.
S.O.S. was chosen as the universal
distress signal by the International Radio Telegraph
Convention of July 1908 because this combination of letters,
three dots followed by three dashes followed by three dots
(...---...),was easy to send and easily recognized. The
letters themselves are meaningless.
The first recorded mention of the
false acronymic origin is in reference to the Titanic sinking
of 1912, which may account for its wide spread and
endurance.
Prior to 1908, the high seas distress
signal consisted of the letters C.Q.D., another nonsense
string, although many took it to mean Come Quickly, Danger.
Use of C.Q.D. continued past 1908, and the Titanic's initial
distress calls used this older signal. It was not until that
ship was near sinking did the radiomen send out the new
signal.
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acronymic:
首字母縮略
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