From: Eric A. Hall [mailto:ehall@ehsco.com] Sent: Wednesday, May 09, 2001 3:51 PM
Think about the acronyms we use in network-speak every day - how many of them stand for phrases in a language other than English?
CCITT, and of course the favorite ISO, International Organization for Standardization.
ISO is not an acronym
http://www.iso.ch/infoe/intro.htm
Many people will have noticed a seeming lack of correspondence between the official title when used in full, International Organization for Standardization, and the short form, ISO. Shouldn't the acronym be "IOS"? Yes, if it were an acronym - which it is not.
In fact, "ISO" is a word, derived from the Greek isos, meaning "equal", which is the root of the prefix "iso-" that occurs in a host of terms, such as "isometric" (of equal measure or dimensions) and "isonomy" (equality of laws, or of people before the law).
From "equal" to "standard", the line of thinking that led to the choice of "ISO" as the name of the organization is easy to follow. In addition, the name ISO is used around the world to denote the organization, thus avoiding the plethora of acronyms resulting from the translation of "International Organization for Standardization" into the different national languages of members, e.g. IOS in English, OIN in French (from Organisation internationale de normalisation). Whatever the country, the short form of the Organization's name is always ISO.
Sounds revisionist but I'll buy it.
Revisionist? I'll say ... Mind you that this is from the tail-end of the haze-daze and the memory isn't quite clear. But, when I was writing ISO/OSI protocol stacks (a brain damn-aging activity in [and of] itself), ISO stood for "International Standards Organization". It was an acronym like GNU is an acronym, with multiple connotations and meaning. However, it was ALSO an acronym. This comes from around 83-84 when DOD decided to stop waiting and go with TCP/IP (a hack around layer 6 and 7 politics).
As for CCITT, well, what do you expect. They can't even get phone numbers in a common presentation form. :/
I thought the CCITT was folded into the ITU?