The absence of certain initials in abbreviations

Question

Hey all,

Why don't you include certain words such as "of" and "the" in abbreviations like "U.S.A." which is short for: "the United States of America"? likewise, why isn't "of" initially capitalized?

Thank you.

Comments

-Omission

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Prepositions, conjunctions and articles such as of, and, for, the and to aren't generally included in abbreviations and hence aren't capitalized. I guess it's because not only it makes the abbreviation too long, but also the phrase is still meaningful without them. However, if the phrase contains few words, these words may be counted too, such as: OTC which is the abbreviation of 'Over The Counter'.

 

http://forum.wordreference.com/threads/the-omission-of-certain-words-in-abbreviations.3145788/#post-15918322

Answer 1

I think prepositions are not important than other parts.