abbreviation question

[soup_lover_9]

In writing, I've seen The University of Washington abbreviated as UW and UDub (or U-Dub). Are both abbreviations correct? I always thought people said "U-dub," and wrote it as UW.

Thanks in advance for clearing up my confusion.

Comments

[tylik]

I'm used to hearing "U-Dub" and seeing UW - and that was standard usage when I was on campus.

However University of Wisconsin is also UW, though apparently that is not pronounced "U-Dub".

So I will sometimes write U of WA to avoid confusion.

[yelperalp]

People in Madison told me they pronounce it "you double-you"... so they own that and we own "you-dub". :)

[tylik]

I forgot to mention that, but yes.

Well, we (which I say as an alum) own U-Dub. But we also use U double-U... and I haven't seen them challenge that yet.

Oh, yeah. Into the cage...!

[headquarters]

I wouldn't say u-dub is correct. That just looks like slang if you were writing. I would just spell it out once as University of Washington and then use UW.

[tedificator]

Just to be clear, Dub is short for "Double U", as in this letter: "W"

There is no possible way that is a formal abbreviation. So U-Dub is a lazy or slang way to say UW, which would be formally pronounced "U double U".

I've always been a proponent of calling UW "triple U", but that's never caught on :P