ABBREVIATION ORIGIN?

[tnugent25]

Dear Mike,
Love your website and everything on it.

PLEASE answer an age old question for me, once and for all?
When talking about the word: "CIRCUIT" in Electrical, WHY do most people use the abbreviation:

CKT.

What is the origin of this seemingly WRONG abbreviation? There is not a "K" in the word. I just ran a crossed it in some CONTINUING EDUCATION that I just completed, it was ADVANCED LIGHTING CONTROLS. The "CKT" was referenced on a relay panel schedule. Is it Military? Government? It has always seemed very wrong to me? Hopefully you can give the ultimate ruling on this?

Anyone Else care to weigh in?

Thanks for all that you do,

Tom Nugent
30YR. JW
IBEW LU 595
DUBLIN, CALIF.

 

[construct]

CKT (Compliant Knob & Tube)????:happysad:

 

[charlie b]

Dear Mike, Love your website and everything on it.

I am sure he would appreciate your good wishes. But Mike seldom participates in this forum.

What is the origin of this seemingly WRONG abbreviation? There is not a "K" in the word.

My answer is that there is nothing wrong about it. Nothing in the rules of the English language requires that an abbreviation contain only letters that are in the original word.

It may be similar to the reason that an electrocardiogram is abbreviated EKG, although there is no "K" in that word either. My mother (a nurse) told me that the reason is that "ECG" would have sounded too much like "EEG," which stands for electroencephalogram, and would therefore potentially confuse the medical staff. Perhaps if we tried to use ?CCT? for ?circuit,? it would be confused with the abbreviation of ?closed circuit television.?

Welcome to the forum.

 

[maghazadeh]

A lots of times I do get confused when reading other's statement (post) with abbreviation.
I wish that everyone would use clear well known abbreviations and if possible to have an index for them. For example GEC = Grounding Electrode Conductor.
What is EGC ? is it Electrode Grounding Conductor? If it is. is it correct to be said this way or should be Grounding Electrode Conductor (EGC).:?

 

[Smart $]

A lots of times I do get confused when reading other's statement (post) with abbreviation.
I wish that everyone would use clear well known abbreviations and if possible to have an index for them. For example GEC = Grounding Electrode Conductor.
What is EGC ? is it Electrode Grounding Conductor? If it is. is it correct to be said this way or should be Grounding Electrode Conductor (EGC).:?

EGC is Equipment Grounding Conductor

 

[Besoeker]

I have seen both cct and, less frequently, ckt.
Why bother?
Either saves just three letters.
Just type the whole word.

 

[infinity]

for three letters I would use CIR, not CKT. The latter sounds like someone failed English 101.

 

[maghazadeh]

Smart $
EGC is Equipment Grounding Conductor

THank you Smart $ for your reply.

 

[jeremysterling]

Maybe I'm deranged, because I've always liked the "CKT" abbr. I use it often for my own notes. Since my project manager does not like the "CKT" abbr., I don't use it for labels or as-builts. If I were the boss, I would encourage its use.

I learned "CKT" and its usage in the US Navy's Electrician's Mate A School. Perhaps it does have military origins.

Show me the X in transformer or the lb in pound. Abbr.'s do not need all the "right" letters.

I would not use "CCT" to abbreviate the word circuit. I agree with Charlie that CCT is for Close Circuit Television.

I agree with Besoeker that if you have problems with abbr., you should spell it out.:happyyes:

 

[GearMan]

I've never liked CKT. Always thought it came from some phonics theory :blink: cct has always been my choice. In any case, used in context, I don't think anyone could be confused.

 

[ggunn]

CKT - circuit
Xfer - transfer (in fact, I see X for "trans" in other places as well)
LB - pound
Pb - lead (the metal) from the latin plumbum
Au - gold (the metal) from the latin aurum
BBL - barrel
...

There is no right or wrong, there is only effectiveness of communication.

 

[K8MHZ]

or the lb in pound.

Libra is Latin for pound.

 

[K8MHZ]

This is the one I think is really far fetched:

XTAL = crystal.

 

[Besoeker]

Perhaps if we tried to use ?CCT? for ?circuit,? it would be confused with the abbreviation of ?closed circuit television.?

Or more likely a range of other things:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CCT

Closed circuit television is usually abbreviated to CCTV.

Somewhat related, I often see abbreviations for electrical units stated incorrectly.
Kva instead of kVA for example. Not just here - some of our suppliers and customers do it.
As Mrs B would readily concur, I'm pedantic about that on documents that go out from our office. We, here included, are in the electrical field. Surely we can at least state the units that we deal in correctly.
Units such as the Ampere, Volt, Farad, Henry, Coulomb, are named after people and should be abbreviated with an upper case initial.

Another little niggle I have is the word "Amperage" when it really means current.

 

[jim dungar]

Units such as the Ampere, Volt, Farad, Henry, Coulomb, are named after people and should be abbreviated with an upper case initial.

And a numerical prefix needs to always have the proper case. 1000 and smaller are almost always lower case.
There is a big difference between a mW and a MW.hmy:

Although in the back of my mind, I believe there is something special about abbreviations of kilometers.

 

[Besoeker]

And a numerical prefix needs to always have the proper case. 1000 and smaller are almost always lower case.
There is a big difference between a mW and a MW.hmy:

Indeed.

Although in the back of my mind, I believe there is something special about abbreviations of kilometers.

Just km as far as I know.

 

[jim dungar]

Just km as far as I know.

It is the litre not the metre.

http://lamar.colostate.edu/~hillger/correct.htm
"The symbol for liter (or litre) may be either a capital el (L) or a lowercase el (l); both are correct. In the U.S., Canada, and Australia, the capital el (L) is preferred, but most other nations use the lowercase el (l). "

 

[readydave8]

I always use ckt for abbreviation, until now I never noticed the lack of a k in circuit. And now that I've noticed I don't really care.

 

[handy10]

This is the one I think is really far fetched:

XTAL = crystal.

X stands for the Greek letter Chi, which is the Greek 'C'. That is why we have Xmas.

 

[K8MHZ]

X stands for the Greek letter Chi, which is the Greek 'C'. That is why we have Xmas.

I thought we had Christmas for a totally different reason.

Actually, X is Chi and the first letter of Χριστός which is translated to Christ.

Crystal in Greek is κρύσταλλο, so the X used in XTAL has no direct Greek origin, like the word Christ.