Phillips Code
 | This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these messages)
|
The Phillips Code is a Brevity code (shorthand) created in 1879 by Walter P. Phillips for the rapid transmission of press reports by telegraph. It defined hundreds of abbreviations and initialisms for commonly used words that news authors and copy desk staff would commonly use. There were subcodes for commodities and stocks called the Market Code, a Baseball Supplement, and single-letter codes for Option Months.[1]
The code consists of a dictionary of common words or phrases and their associated abbreviations. Extremely common terms are represented by a single letter (C - See; Y - Year); those less frequently used gain successively longer abbreviations (Ab - About; Abb - Abbreviate; Abty- Ability; Acmpd - Accompanied).
The terms POTUS and SCOTUS originated in the code[1][2][3] and entered common parlance when newsgathering services (in particular, Associated Press) adopted the terminology.
Telegraph operators would often interleave Phillips Code with numeric "Wire Signals", to describe the article's priority or confirm its transmission. This meta-data would occasionally appear in printed newspapers,[4][failed verification] especially the code for "End of article" - 30.
See also
References
- ^ a b "The Phillips Code".
{{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|dead-url=(help) - ^ "President of the United States". World Wide Words (copyright Michael Quinion). Retrieved 2009-01-26.
- ^ Safire, William (1997-10-12). "On Language; Potus And Flotus". New York Times - October 12, 1997 (N.b. mistakenly claim POTUS first appeared in the later 1925 edition). Retrieved 2009-01-25.
- ^ "So Why Not 29?". American Journalism Review - Oct/Nov 2007. Retrieved 2009-01-25.
External links
- http://www.morsetelegraphclub.org/files/phillips.pdf
- The Phillips Telegraphic Code for the Rapid Transmission by Telegraph of Press Reports, Commercial and Private Telegrams and All Other Matter Sent by Wire or Cable (Washington, D.C.: Gibson Brothers, 1879)
 | This article related to telecommunications is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |