I can’t hear you: mic vs. mike
Monday, April 26th, 2010Yet another recent style change — or change back — from the AP Stylebook folks concerns the abbreviation of microphone. Back in March ‘10, the AP folks put it out there: The abbreviation that used to be mic would henceforth be mike.
No one could hear the announcement over the roar of the crowd.
According to Slate Magazine, the broadcast wing of the AP raised a hullabaloo fierce enough to cause AP to reverse that decision.
Hey, Mike: Is this thing on? (photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/snackerdesigns/4221001947/)
I’m torn.
To me, the abbreviation should, indeed, have fewer of the same letters as the original word, but not different letters (such as mike — ain’t no no k in microphone). But the three-letter mic looks like it should sound like mick (or Mick). Beside the fact that mike with a lowercase m is slightly weird, I was going to be OK with the change; after all, other words that are proper nouns are also regular ol’ nouns — think of Pat/pat, Bob/bob, Art/art and Bill/bill. I even know a few elementary school jokes that say as much.
Then again, if you’re riding around your neighborhood on a bicycle (sans the letter k), you’re on your bike and not your bic. (What? You are on a bic? Now that would be something to see. Or not.)
This is why I defer to the AP Stylebook on most cases.
So for the record, it’s currently mic for microphone.
Happy trails!
SAK
