Never heard of ICSA? Never mind. It’s just one of the many acronyms that splotch all over the printed page and increasingly replace real words in the way we talk.

Acronyms do serve a useful function sometimes. FBI and CIA save time and space and have gotten embedded in the English language (as well as many other languages). NATO also is well known, saving the trouble of writing or saying North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

Old timers will recall famous acronyms that now are long gone out of use. AEF meant American Expeditionary Force in World War I. In the Roosevelt New Deal era, WPA meant Works Progress Administration, and PWA stood for Public Works Administration. AAA was Agricultural Adjustment Administration, and NRA meant National Recovery Administration. They were well known and widely used at the time.

These last two show something of the down side of acronyms. AAA also means American Automobile Association, and NRA also means National Rifle Association. Carry this habit far enough, with only 17,576 different three-letter combinations, and you are bound to run into duplication.

A more serious shortcoming is that relying on acronyms can give an illusion of efficiency and may annoy others. I once worked with a woman who kept sending me documents marked ASAP. That meant I should act on them As Soon As Possible. I once replied, “WIGTI” – When I Get To It. And it took me a long time to figure out that sending an SASE meant a Self-Addressed Stamped Envelope.

On an assignment in South Africa, I was puzzled to see the unexplained initials CBI in headlines and news stories. Everyone down there, it turned out, knew that they stood for Central Business District. I didn’t.

That brings me to the most serious objection to acronyms. We Mainers don’t think twice about writing or saying SAD for School Administrative District or LURC for Land Use Regulation Commission. But what about the youngsters who are just learning the language and who, we hope, are getting the habit of reading the newspapers? And what about newcomers to Maine, who we hope will become active, knowledgeable, newspaper-reading citizens of their new state? Throw a lot of unintelligible alphabet soup at them in spoken language or in a news story or editorial, and you are inviting them to quit listening and quit reading.

I would like to do away with acronyms altogether. In fact, I have thought of forming an organization called ICSA – I Can’t Stand Acronyms.

But speakers and writers can hardly be expected to go that far. Instead, how about taking it a little easy with acronyms? Why not avoid them when possible? Why not, in second mention, say “the school district” instead of SAD, and “the commission” instead of LURC? And why not leave some of those puzzling, turn-off, initials out of the headlines?

Richard Dudman was a reporter and correspondent for 31 years for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. He lives in Ellsworth.