It’s an acronym, tho. From the Wiktionary page for ‘acronym’:
The broader sense of acronym inclusive of initialisms (as TNT) is sometimes proscribed[3] but was the term’s original meaning and remains its more common meaning.
So it seems like a bunch of prescriptivists just made up this distinction, included it in some style guides, and then tried to proscribe the other meaning or something.
In English, the word is used in two ways. In the narrow sense, an acronym is a sequence of letters (representing the initial letters of words in a phrase) when pronounced together as a single word, like NASA, NATO, or laser. In the broad sense, the term includes this kind of sequence when pronounced letter by letter (such as GDP or USA). Sources that differentiate the two often call the former acronyms and the latter initialisms[1][2][3] or alphabetisms. However, acronym is popularly used to refer to either concept,[4] and both senses of the term are attributed as far back as the 1940s.[5]
YSK that it’s’ an initialism, not an acronym. An acronym is pronounced like a word, for example FIFA or NASA.
It’s an acronym, tho. From the Wiktionary page for ‘acronym’:
So it seems like a bunch of prescriptivists just made up this distinction, included it in some style guides, and then tried to proscribe the other meaning or something.
Every time you communicate an idea in a way a prescriptivist doesn’t like, an angel gets its wings
Don’t tell me how to pronounce TLA.
TLA Tequila?
TLLLLLLLLLLA
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acronym