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A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Did transistors transform celestial navigation?
From: John D. Howard
Date: 2018 Jul 14, 07:15 -0700
From: John D. Howard
Date: 2018 Jul 14, 07:15 -0700
David,
When a trademark or prpiorty word falls it is said to have become public domain ( at least in English ) such as asprin - a trademark word of the Bayer company untill the First World War. ( in the USA )
GPS will never become a word - it is an initialism. Some initalisms do become words ( acronyms ) because you can say them as words. Words like radar or scuba started as initialisms but lost their capatalization wereas words like NATO or ANZAC are said as words but still capatilized thus are acronyms. GPS or BBC are not said as words but rather spelled out. Some are both - ASAP is eather A.S.A.P or Asap.
John H.
