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Abbrev. for "paradoxical reaction"?
3 years ago
Talking about paradoxical reactions is not always the easiest topic...for a purely communicative reason: It's a long, eight-syllable word—par·a·dox·i·cal re·ac·tion /ˌpæɹ.əˈdɒk.sɪˌkəl ɹiˈæk.ʃən/—which my family has always spoken in long form for as long as I remember. Paradoxical reactions are rare and exceptional by nature, so if they happened to everyone all the time, they wouldn't be a thing, so there isn't much incentive to abbreviate them. I mean, that eight syllable count can be reduced to five syllables in rapid speech—par'dox'cal r'yac·tion /pæɹˈdɒks.kəl ˈɹjæk.ʃən/—but usually no further.
So, in writing about paradoxical reactions, I had to consult established medical literature for an abbreviation. And that raised another problem: Whenever an abbreviation is ever used, the most overwhelmingly conventional abbreviation is "PR," with a Google search for "paradoxical reaction" "PR" returning 12700 results. Why is this a problem? Because, in my case, the wrong paradoxical reaction risks creating problematic behavior, as my previous month-long-undetected paradoxical reaction was dangerously close to doing, and already rifted one of my friendships. So...a bad PR (paradoxical reaction) can cause...bad PR (public relations). "PR" for "public relations" is a common enough conversational term that using "PR" for both that and "paradoxical reaction" is not going to work.
I investigated other abbreviations. The most promising appears to be "PXR," which I used in my earlier journal entry. That term has seen some existing usage, but a Google search for "paradoxical reaction" "PXR" returned only 226 results, and some of the results had "PXR" used not for "paradoxical reaction," but instead for a completely different term, pregnane X receptor. Argh. But since I can safely say I've had absolutely zero prior discussions involving pregnane X receptors, I can generally safely use "PXR" as an abbreviation for "paradoxical reaction." One thing that should be made clear is that "PXR" is never intended to be read aloud as "pee-ex-ar," but always as "paradoxical reaction" in full.
Could this be improved upon?
Maybe "PxR" with a small "x" to indicate it doesn't stand for its own word?
Or maybe "p17n" for 17 omitted letters after the first "p" and before the last "n" in the 19-letter phrase "paradoxical reaction?" Compare "i18n," an existing abbreviation for the 20-letter word "internationalization."
So, in writing about paradoxical reactions, I had to consult established medical literature for an abbreviation. And that raised another problem: Whenever an abbreviation is ever used, the most overwhelmingly conventional abbreviation is "PR," with a Google search for "paradoxical reaction" "PR" returning 12700 results. Why is this a problem? Because, in my case, the wrong paradoxical reaction risks creating problematic behavior, as my previous month-long-undetected paradoxical reaction was dangerously close to doing, and already rifted one of my friendships. So...a bad PR (paradoxical reaction) can cause...bad PR (public relations). "PR" for "public relations" is a common enough conversational term that using "PR" for both that and "paradoxical reaction" is not going to work.
I investigated other abbreviations. The most promising appears to be "PXR," which I used in my earlier journal entry. That term has seen some existing usage, but a Google search for "paradoxical reaction" "PXR" returned only 226 results, and some of the results had "PXR" used not for "paradoxical reaction," but instead for a completely different term, pregnane X receptor. Argh. But since I can safely say I've had absolutely zero prior discussions involving pregnane X receptors, I can generally safely use "PXR" as an abbreviation for "paradoxical reaction." One thing that should be made clear is that "PXR" is never intended to be read aloud as "pee-ex-ar," but always as "paradoxical reaction" in full.
Could this be improved upon?
Maybe "PxR" with a small "x" to indicate it doesn't stand for its own word?
Or maybe "p17n" for 17 omitted letters after the first "p" and before the last "n" in the 19-letter phrase "paradoxical reaction?" Compare "i18n," an existing abbreviation for the 20-letter word "internationalization."
