If a medical professional writes “S.O.B.” in your medical file, it doesn’t mean you’re a TOTAL JERK, it means “shortness of breath.” (Which could be a bigger problem than just being unpleasant.)
Someone asked the internet, “What abbreviation did you think meant something else?” And here were some of the best responses:
1. “I though SMH meant So Much Hate.” Someone else added, “I thought it was Smack My Head, like a facepalm sort of thing.”
2. “I thought IYKYK was people just making that sound out loud.” (It’s “If You Know You Know” . . . if you didn’t know.)
3. “For your ID, I thought the I stood for I, and the D stood for Dentification.” (Apparently it stands for “Identity Document.”)
4. “I thought OG just meant original. I work in mortgages, and I’ve labeled original loan term documents as ‘OG terms’ and given them to my director for review, not realizing I labeled them ‘original gangster terms.'”
5. “I used to think FTW (For the Win) stood for ‘[Eff] the World.'”
6. “POS. I know it’s ‘Piece of [Crap],’ but whenever I see it in business contexts meaning ‘Point of Sale’ it always takes me a minute to read it correctly.” Another person added, “It’s okay. Most POS systems are a POS.”
7. “When I was a kid, I thought STFU meant “Stuff You”, as an alternative for “Get Stuffed.”
8. “I thought EST after a time was short for ‘estimated’ for longer than I’d care to admit.”
9. “AI. When I was growing up, it meant artificial insemination. That’s how we bred our cows.”
10. “I thought BRB was ‘bath room break.'”