See initialese on Wiktionary
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"expansion": "Etymology tree\nEnglish initial\nProto-Indo-European *-iskos\nProto-Germanic *-iskaz\nProto-West Germanic *-iskbor.\nLate Latin -iscus\n▲\nVulgar Latin -iscus\nLatin -ēnsis\nOld French -eisbor.\nMiddle English -eys\nEnglish -ese\nEnglish initialese\n[Appendix:Glossary#loanword|Borrowed]] from\", \"terms\" : [ { \"id\" : \"-eis fro\", \"children\" : [ { \"terms\" : [ { \"children\" : [ { \"keyword_abbrev\" : \"bor.\", \"keyword_label\" : \"Borrowed from\", \"terms\" : [ { \"id\" : \"adjective\", \"children\" : [ { \"terms\" : [ { \"id\" : \"pertaining to\", \"children\" : [ { \"terms\" : [ { \"id\" : \"pertaining to\", \"children\" : [ ], \"status\" : \"ok\", \"lang_name\" : \"Proto-Indo-European\", \"term\" : \"*-iskos\", \"lang\" : \"ine-pro\" } ], \"keyword_label\" : \"Inherited from\", \"keyword\" : \"inherited\" } ], \"status\" : \"ok\", \"lang_name\" : \"Proto-Germanic\", \"term\" : \"*-iskaz\", \"lang\" : \"gem-pro\" } ], \"keyword_label\" : \"Inherited from\", \"keyword\" : \"inherited\" } ], \"status\" : \"ok\", \"lang_name\" : \"Proto-West Germanic\", \"term\" : \"*-isk\", \"lang\" : \"gmw-pro\" } ], \"keyword\" : \"bor\" } ], \"lang_name\" : \"Late Latin\", \"term\" : \"-iscus\", \"status\" : \"ok\", \"lang\" : \"la-lat\" } ], \"keyword_label\" : \"Inherited from\", \"keyword\" : \"inherited\" }, { \"terms\" : [ { \"is_duplicate\" : true, \"children\" : [ ], \"status\" : { \"1\" : \"la\", \"2\" : \":bor\", \"3\" : \"gmw-pro:*-isk<id:adjective>\", \"id\" : \"suf\", \"tree\" : \"1\" }, \"lang_name\" : \"Vulgar Latin\", \"term\" : \"-iscus\", \"lang\" : \"la-vul\" } ], \"keyword_label\" : \"Inherited from\", \"keyword\" : \"inherited\" }, { \"terms\" : [ { \"children\" : [ ], \"lang_name\" : \"Latin\", \"term\" : \"-ēnsis\", \"status\" : \"ok\", \"lang\" : \"la\" } ], \"keyword_label\" : \"Inherited from\", \"keyword\" : \"inherited\" } ], \"status\" : \"ok\", \"lang_name\" : \"Old French\", \"term\" : \"-eis\", \"lang\" : \"fro\" } ], \"keyword\" : \"bor\" } ], \"status\" : \"ok\", \"lang_name\" : \"Middle English\", \"term\" : \"-eys\", \"lang\" : \"enm\" } ], \"keyword_label\" : \"Inherited from\", \"keyword\" : \"inherited\" } ], \"lang_name\" : \"English\", \"term\" : \"-ese\", \"status\" : \"ok\", \"lang\" : \"en\" } ], \"keyword_label\" : \"From\", \"is_group\" : true, \"keyword\" : \"affix\" } ], \"lang_name\" : \"English\", \"term\" : \"initialese\", \"status\" : \"ok\", \"lang\" : \"en\" }\" data-lang=\"en\" data-title=\"initialese\">\nFrom initial + -ese.",
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"etymology_text": "Etymology tree\nEnglish initial\nProto-Indo-European *-iskos\nProto-Germanic *-iskaz\nProto-West Germanic *-iskbor.\nLate Latin -iscus\n▲\nVulgar Latin -iscus\nLatin -ēnsis\nOld French -eisbor.\nMiddle English -eys\nEnglish -ese\nEnglish initialese\nFrom initial + -ese.",
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"ref": "1965, Design news, volume 20, numbers 10-17:",
"text": "Let me assure you, sir, that I will, in the interests of APANUA, continue the ceaseless fight against senseless acronymity, initialese, indecipherable abbreviation.",
"type": "quotation"
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"glosses": [
"Language that is rendered confusing by many initialisms."
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"id": "en-initialese-en-noun-TreMHWI-",
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"(informal) Language that is rendered confusing by many initialisms."
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"name": "ety"
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"etymology_text": "Etymology tree\nEnglish initial\nProto-Indo-European *-iskos\nProto-Germanic *-iskaz\nProto-West Germanic *-iskbor.\nLate Latin -iscus\n▲\nVulgar Latin -iscus\nLatin -ēnsis\nOld French -eisbor.\nMiddle English -eys\nEnglish -ese\nEnglish initialese\nFrom initial + -ese.",
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"word": "abbreviationitis"
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"ref": "1965, Design news, volume 20, numbers 10-17:",
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"type": "quotation"
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"Language that is rendered confusing by many initialisms."
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"(informal) Language that is rendered confusing by many initialisms."
],
"tags": [
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]
}
],
"word": "initialese"
}
Download raw JSONL data for initialese meaning in All languages combined (4.2kB)
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable All languages combined dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2026-06-07 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2026-06-01 using wiktextract (e79dea5 and 7f4db16). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.
If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.