laser scope

Scanning wrote: It may have originated from an acronym, but it is now in just about any dictionary as a word. Language is DEscriptive, not PREscriptive. When a technical term enters the common language to the point it has an entry in Webster's, we have to yield to the rest of the people on the planet who speak English. We don't get a say in it anymore. Just like those of you who pounce on people who use the word "ironic" to mean what it means in that famous song. You're wrong: you need to look up in a modern dictionary what the word means, not some 1960's one. The words "solid state laser", uncapitalized, even if it may offend you, is now (in 2009) perfectly acceptable written English. Unless your deLorean is going 88 MPH, it is arguably you who is doing it wrong by insisting it's an acronym. It may have originally been one: it is now an actual word.