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I'm writing a technical report and must use the plural form of LASER. Seeing as it is an acronym, how does one add the 's'?

Daniel
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nopcorn
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3 Answers3

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The acronym LASER describes a process, not equipment. Modern usage is lasing for the process, and laser has become an ordinary noun. So for multiple devices operating on the LASER principle: "lasers" or "LASERs". Preferably the first, without all caps.

Ben Voigt
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  • Laser sounds way cooler than light amplification by stimulated emission radiation. – Nick Bedford Apr 12 '11 at 02:21
  • @nick: You missed an "of". But yes, that's the full name of the process or principle. And it raises the question of what making the acronym plural would mean... amplifications? radiations? I guess emissions would work, but that still doesn't convey multiple devices. No, Max definitely means laser and not LASER. – Ben Voigt Apr 12 '11 at 02:26
  • @Ben: as you said yourself, the acronym only describes the physical process, so there is no plural form of the acronym itself. You amplify the light, whether you do it with one piece of equipment or with a thousand it doesn't matter! – nico Jun 09 '11 at 04:50
  • @nico: Exactly right, that's why I said in my answer it's better not to capitalize. – Ben Voigt Jun 09 '11 at 05:01
  • This is a phrase that is present in the NOAD: "Lasers are used in drilling and cutting, alignment and guidance, and in surgery." The NOAD describes laser as "a device that generates an intense beam of coherent monochromatic light.“ – apaderno Jun 14 '11 at 17:23
  • @kiamlaluno: That's the meaning of the ordinary noun, which came into common usage long after the acronym. Only the acronym should be written in all caps. – Ben Voigt Jun 14 '11 at 17:42
  • That is the definition given from the NOAD, and the BED; neither the dictionaries defines laser as a process. The Collins English Dictionary defines laser as "a source of high-intensity optical, infrared, or ultraviolet radiation produced as a result of a stimulated emission […]." The Collins has also a different meaning for Laser, but it's not related with laser. – apaderno Jun 14 '11 at 17:53
  • @kiamlaluno: General purpose dictionaries aren't expected to cover specialized scientific acronyms, which LASER is. @Nick has correctly named all the major terms in the acronym LASER. If you're not prepared to discuss photon emission during changes between quantum energy states, population inversion, etc., it just means you don't understand the process of LASER, not that LASER somehow isn't an acronym for that process. – Ben Voigt Jun 14 '11 at 18:21
  • I doubt that general purpose dictionaries doesn't cover scientific terms, as the NOAD reports the meaning of quark, FAS, object (as used in computing). If the NOAD reports that definition of laser, I take that is the definition generally accepted in English; if there is another definition for the word, I would expect the dictionary to report it, in the same way it does for object. – apaderno Jun 14 '11 at 19:02
  • If the NOAD doesn't list "Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation", a process (or principle) as a meaning of the acronym LASER, then it's incomplete. That's what the acronym stands for. If you're used the common noun rather than the acronym, it shouldn't be capitalized. – Ben Voigt Jun 14 '11 at 21:27
  • The NOAD doesn't have an entry for "Light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation," in the same way it doesn't have an entry for "object oriented;" it is probably not supposed to have such entries. Also, even if a word had origin as acronym doesn't mean the word is still understood to be an acronym. – apaderno Jun 14 '11 at 22:50
  • @kiamlaluno: If you paid any attention to what I wrote in my comment, you'd see that I don't expect the dictionary to have an entry for that phrase, I expect an entry for "LASER" and that phrase to appear, with those exact words, in the definition. Anyway, the word laser is derived from the acronym LASER. The acronym hasn't disappeared, it's still a valid acronym. You may further note that I didn't say the dictionary wouldn't cover scientific terms, I said it wouldn't cover specialized acronyms. There are many more acronyms around than words in the dictionary. – Ben Voigt Jun 14 '11 at 22:54
  • @kiamlaluno: Also, whether or not you still understand the word as an acronym, this question involves just that. – Ben Voigt Jun 14 '11 at 22:59
  • @Ben Voigt Isn't FAS (fetal alcohol syndrome) a specialized acronym? You see two words; I see the same word written in uppercase, and lowercase. Wikipedia also uses laser whenever it is referring to the device, or the process. – apaderno Jun 14 '11 at 23:05
  • @kiamlaluno: I'm not sure what the point is. Some acronyms are listed, that doesn't imply they are trying to cover all acronyms. For example, do any of the acronyms listed at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laser_acronyms also have entries in NOAD? Probably only a very small fraction. – Ben Voigt Jun 15 '11 at 00:41
  • The point is that "it would cover specialized acronyms" is not true. – apaderno Jun 15 '11 at 00:49
  • @kiamlaluno: There's got to be some reason that FAS is listed and PDU (power distribution unit) is not. Presumably it's because the editors considered one to be of general interest and the other too specialized. So, apparently no matter what you and I think, the consensus among NOAD editors is that FAS is not specialized. – Ben Voigt Jun 15 '11 at 00:52
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  1. LASER is now almost universally spelled as a “normal” word and not as an acronym, as laser.
  2. Both acronyms and ordinary words are pluralized by adding s or es. The plural of LASER would be LASERs. The plural of laser is lasers.
nohat
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  • As I commented on the accepted answer, I don't really think there is a point in pluralising the acronym, as it refers to the physical process, rather than the machine. – nico Jun 09 '11 at 07:59
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    Whether you like it or not, the acronym laser (whether capitalized as LASER or not) is used to refer to the equipment, and when referring to more than one machine, it follows the normal rules for English pluralization. – nohat Jun 09 '11 at 08:55
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    I never saw LASER used for the machine. I always saw LASER used as an acronym of Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiations and laser used for the machine. – nico Jun 09 '11 at 12:17
  • @nohat: The word that means the equipment is not and has never been an acronym. Rather it has the suffix -er, meaning "someone or something that does". Just as a lamplighter is someone who lights lamps, a laser is a device that does/causes LASER. – Ben Voigt Jun 14 '11 at 18:24
  • @Ben Voigt "ORIGIN 1960s: acronym from light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation." – apaderno Jun 14 '11 at 19:04
  • To notice also that lase (the verb) is a back-formation from laser. – apaderno Jun 14 '11 at 19:14
  • @kiamlaluno: Yes, and "amplification" is a process, "amplification by stimulated emission of radiation" is a principle of operation. The acronym is not a device. When the technology became popular, people noticed that it appeared to have an -er suffix, and created a new corresponding word laser which is not an acronym. And then the verb followed. – Ben Voigt Jun 14 '11 at 21:30
  • @Ben Voigt There aren't two words; the word is only one. You wrote that laser has the suffix -er, meaning "someone or something that does", which is not exact, as laser doesn't derive from las + er. – apaderno Jun 14 '11 at 21:50
  • @kiamlaluno: There are two words. One is an acronym. The other is a common noun. – Ben Voigt Jun 14 '11 at 22:11
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    It doesn't appear the spelling LASER ever much currency at all: http://ngrams.googlelabs.com/graph?content=laser%2CLaser%2CLASER&year_start=1960&year_end=2011&corpus=0&smoothing=3 – nohat Jun 14 '11 at 22:29
  • @nohat: You may thank science fiction authors for the preponderance of laser, phaser, maser, and graser as fantastical weapons systems. (Note that I'm not saying lasers and masers are fantasy only, just that the overwhelming majority of their appearances are.) Is there a tool to chart usage in scientific publications? (Seeing as this question involves a technical report, that would seem apropos.) – Ben Voigt Jun 14 '11 at 22:56
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"Laser" has long since entered the lexicon as a regular word instead of an acronym. True, it originally was an acronym for L ight A mplification by the S timulated E mission of R adiation, but that has gone the way of the horse and buggy since at least the 1970s.

The plural of "laser" is "lasers".

Spoxjox
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