2

What is it called when single letters are used as words in a sentence?

I C A B.
I C D B P!

I see a Bee.
I see the bee pee!

F U N-E X?
S I F X.
F U N-E M?
S I F M.
OK I L F M N X!

Have you any eggs?
Yes I have eggs.
Have you any Ham?
Yes I have ham.
OK. I will have ham and eggs.

I have been looking for this, at a low level, for years.

Andrew Leach
  • 101,901
Rich Press
  • 29

2 Answers2

5

I do like acronymation for the proliferation of acronyms in new media. But I think the examples given in the question (and some comments) are either humorous or puzzles.

In such cases, the word rebus would apply:

a riddle or puzzle made up of letters, pictures, or symbols whose names sound like the parts or syllables of a word or phrase. Merriam Webster

Margana
  • 4,007
  • 1
  • 12
  • 21
  • Right! Wikipedia says: "Some tokens of the SMS language can be likened to a rebus, using pictures and single letters or numbers to represent whole words" under SMS language article. – ermanen Jun 08 '15 at 18:07
  • Rebus is fine, but here it is not a question of word puzzles, it is a communication issue. –  Jun 08 '15 at 18:09
1

This is a reverse mondegreen -- where words appear to be nonsense, but sound sensible when spoken aloud.

Gaurav
  • 1,724
  • I'm not sure that a mondegreen is nonsense in either of its forms, though. It's a mis-hearing of a lyric, or other spoken text, but the "wrong" version is usually coherent: "The girl with colitis goes by", or "Dining Out in Paris and London". – Margana Jun 09 '15 at 10:43
  • The examples under "reverse mondegreen" on Wikipedia are pretty nonsensical when not spoken aloud, I think, although they might have gotten the definition wrong. I definitely agree that this is a rebus; I just think RM better captures the seeming nonsensicalness and the solution of the puzzle (to speak it out). – Gaurav Jun 09 '15 at 16:24
  • 1
    Yep, you have a point! – Margana Jun 09 '15 at 16:28
  • @Margana, which song does the "Dining Out..." come from? Also, would you consider "Mairzy Doats" to be the correct or the wrong interpretation? XD – SO_fix_the_vote_sorting_bug Mar 25 '20 at 17:44