With much appreciation to MA member Looking4, who compiled most of this list, here is a list of abbreviations and acronyms that one can expect to see used on Marriage Advocates:

180 = DivorceBusting technique
A = Affair
AA = Alcoholics Anonymous
ADDY = Email Address or Postal Mail Address
AFAIK = As far as I know......
AH = Annoying Habit
AO = Angry Outburst
AP = Affair Partner
ATTY = Attorney
BF = Boyfriend
BIL = Brother-In-Law
BH= Betrayed Husband
BP = Betrayed Partner
BS = Betrayed Spouse
BTDT = Been There Done That
BTW = By The Way
BW = Betrayed Wife
CP = Custodial Parent
CPS = Child Protective Services
CS = Child Support
CSE = Child Support Enforcement
D-Day = Discovery Day (of the affair)
DA = Domestic Abuse
DB = Divorce Busting or DivorceBusting.com
DD = Darling Daughter
DH = Darling Husband or Divorced Husband
DITHL = Deer In The Headlights
DJ = Disrespectful Judgment
DR = The Divorce Remedy (DB technique)
DS = Domestic Support or Darling Son
DV-Day = Divorce Day
DV = Domestic Violence
DW = Darling Wife or Divorced Wife
DS = Darling Son
EA = Emotional Affair
EMA = Extramarital Affair
EMR = Extramarital Relationship
EN = Emotional Needs
EOM = End of Message
EP = Extraordinary Precaution
FAQ = Frequently Asked Questions
FB = Facebook.com
FC = Family Commitment
FIL = Father-In-Law
FOM = Former Other Man
FOO = Family Of Origin
FOW = Former Other Woman
FOFL = Falling On Floor Laughing
FS = Financial Security
FWH = Former Wayward Husband
FWIW = For What It's Worth
FWS = Former Wayward Spouse
FWW = Former Wayward Wife
FYA = For Your Amusement
FYI = For Your Information
GAL = "Getting A Life" (DivorceBusters term)
GF = Girlfriend
GH = Ghost Husband
GP = Grandparent
GW = Ghost Wife
H = Husband
HALT = Hungary, Angry, Lonely, Tired = time to NOT make decisions. (DB term)
HP = Healing Phase
IB = Independent Behavior
IC = Individual Counselor (or Counseling)
IDK = I Don't Know
ILY = I Love You
ILYBIDLY = I Love You But I'm Not In Love With You
IM = Instant Message
IMO = In My Opinion
IMHO = In My Humble Opinion
IMVHO = In My Very Humble Opinion
IP = Intervention Phase
IRL = In Real Life
ITA = I Totally Agree
J/K = Just Kidding
KWIM = Know What I Mean
KWIMV = Know What I Mean, Vern?
LB = Love Bust(er)
LBS = Left Behind Spouse
LF = Lady Friend
LL = Love Languages
LMAO = Laughing My *** Off
LOL = Laugh Out Loud
LRT = Last Resort Technique (DivorceBusters term)
LTA = Long-term Affair
M = Marriage
MA = Marriage Advocates or MarriageAdvocates.com
MB = Marriage Builders or MarriageBuilders.com
MC = Marriage Counselor (or Counseling)
MF = Man Friend
MIL = Mother-In-Law
MLC = Mid-Life Crisis
MM = Married Man
Mx = Married man or woman
MW = Married Woman
NC = No Contact
NCP = Non-Custodial Parent
OC = Other Child (of the WP and AP)
OEA = Online Emotional Affair
OIC = Oh I See
OM = Other Man
OMG = Oh My *** or Oh My Goodness
OMMV = Other's Milage May Vary
OMW = Other Man's Wife
OP = Other Person OR Original Poster (depends on context)
OPS = Other Person's Spouse
Ox = Other man or woman
OW = Other Woman
OWH = Other Woman's Husband
PA = Physical Affair
PDA = Public Display of Affection
POJA = Policy of Joint Agreement (MB Principal)
PORH = Policy of Radical Honesty (MB Principal)
POS = Piece of **** (can be considered offensive)
POSOM = Piece of **** Other Man (intentionally offensive)
POV = Point Of View
PP = Protection Phase
QT = Quality Time
R = Relationship
RA = Revenge Affair
RBTL = Read Between The Lines
RC = Recreational Companionship
RH = Radical Honesty
RL = Real life
ROTFL = Rolling On The Floor Laughing
ROTFLMAO = Rolling On The Floor Laughing My *** Off,
RP = Reconciliation Phase
S = Spouse
SAHD = Stay-At-Home Dad
SAHM = Stay-At-Home Mom
SD = Selfish Demand
SF = Sexual Fulfillment or Step-Father
SI = SurvivingInfidelity.com
SIG = Signature
SIT or SITCH = Situation
SL = Sex Life
SLT = Something Like That
SM = Step-Mother
SO = Significant Other
SOB = Son of a ***** (can be considered offensive)
SoC = School of Coaching (SYMC program)
SOL = **** Out of Luck (can be considered offensive)
SOSDD - same old S---, different day. (can be considered offensive)
SS = Step-Son
SSM = Sex-Starved Marriage
STBXH = Soon-To-Be Ex-Husband
STBXW = Soon-To-Be Ex-Wife
SYMC = Save Your Marriage Central or SaveYourMarriageCentral.com
TAFN = That's all for now
TAM = Talk About Marriage or TalkAboutMarriage.com
TBA = To Be Announced
TBD = To Be Determined
TD = The Thunderdome Forum, a place here for "heated discussions"
T/J = Thread Jack (to go off topic)
TLC = Tender Loving Care
TMI = Too Much Information
TOM = The Other Man
TOS = Terms of Site
TOW = The Other Woman
UA = Undivided Attention
VAR = Voice Activated Recorder
VLTA = very long term affair
W = Wife
WAH = Walk Away Husband
WAW = Walk Away Wife
WH = Wayward Husband
WP = Wayward Person
WS = Wayward Spouse
WTF = What/When/Where/Why The **** (can be considered offensive)
WTSDS = Where The Sun Don't Shine
WTSHTF = When The **** Hits The Fan (can be considered offensive)
WW = Wayward Wife
WYSIWYG = What You See Is What You Get
XH = Ex-Husband
XOXO = Hugs and kisses
XW = Ex-Wife
YGTBK = You've Got To Be Kidding
YGWYPF = You Get What You Pay For
YMAK = You May Already Know
YMMV - your mileage may vary
YOYO = You're On Your Own
YY4U = Too Wise For You

Please feel free to add any more that you can think of. TAL and TTYL!

i've seen POSOM used but i have no idea what that acronym stands for. can you add that to the list above?

thanks,
D4MIL

POSOM = Piece of #$@% Other Man

lol. ok.
POSOW = Piece of #!&@# Other Woman

What does NBD mean?

hmm, nothing comes to my mind from MB.
It looks familiar but i'm drawing a blank.
Wonder if the B=bipolar and the D=disorder

How was it used, Mystik?

NBD I don't know.
NPD = Narcissistic Personality Disorder

BPD = Borderline Personality Disorder

FWIW, waywards often exhibit characteristics of both disorders during an affair.

Borderline Personality Disorder ...... that's the one I was thinking.

NBD means No Big Deal....it's a text abbr. rather than a psych one.

Can we possibly get this list updated, to indicate that "SSM" can also mean "Sex-Starved Marriage?"

Since so many have come over here from the DivorceBusting forum, there may be some confusion, since MWD's "Sex-Starved Marriage" book -- and even people's marriages themselves -- are often referred to as "SSM."

Puppy

THATS what that means! I kept reading it at Same Sex Marriage, but it never made sense.

Sex-starved marriage makes more sense

Thanks Puppy.

One thing I want to remind everyone about is this...and it's REALLY important...is that while acronyms help save time for all of us, there really are some downsides.

Recently, someone I knew came to this site and was just overwhelmed by the number of acronyms and abbreviations we use. I had another visitor tell me that they found many of the threads almost unintelligible because of them and that they had never been to a site that used so many.

Another thing to consider is that most of them mean nothing to search engines. Typing these words out instead of using the abbreviations would make an enormous difference both in readability and in people's ability to find us.

I know it's far easier to use the abbreviations, but whenever any of you have a little extra time (or feel industrious), consider occasionally typing things out instead.

I'm bored with abbreviations and don't like them much, FWIW (LOL).

The irony was intentional.

I suppose the sassiness was intentional too?

I understand our desire to keep acronyms to a minimum but I'd like to revisit this request to add SSM (Sex-Starved marriage) to the list since it is probably more used on MA than the current definition listed.

Thanks,
Ace

Hmmm; I thought this was already done?

Definitely.


Puppy

Saw 2 new ones recently:

UH - Unfaithful Husband
UW - Unfaithful wife

Can anyone please tell me what ETA means?

I've seen it several times and, at one time, saw it referred to as Estimated Time of Arrival, but that doesn't make sense in the posts I'm reading. Thanks in advance.

Also, I'm not getting a read on the difference between a wayward spouse and a walkaway spouse. Does anyone have any thoughts on this?

Lastly, does FWH mean Former Walkaway Husband, or FWW = Walkaway Wife, etc.?

I'll let someone with more time explain the others.

Ace

FWH and FWW mean Former Wayward Husband and Former Wayward Wife. It's used when a wayward spouse repents and is at home trying to work things out. People talk about "earning the F", meaning they aren't called "Former" until they are obviously on the road to building a better marriage.

I don't know if people also use it to mean "Walkaway" rather than "Wayward".

I'm not sure what the difference is between "Wayward" and "Walkaway", but I would guess Wayward means infidelity but they might still be living at home, while Walkaway means they moved out but there may or may not be infidelity involved. Is that close?

Yes, wayward involves infidelity. Walkaways leave because they are mightily dissatisfied with the marriage for other reasons--neglect, spouse's addiction, abuse, or other chronic problems.

Oh, that certainly clears things up then. I've been using the term Walkaway incorrectly all these years. My case was the Wayward Spouse and not the Walkaway. Makes perfect sense now.

Thank you all, for your replies.

Another place to look is Hot Herf's and Amazing Ama's Glossery of MA Terms

Oh. OK, thanks. I'll check that out....

Well, I just DID check it out and it is amazing. Thank you for posting it. I wonder if it can be added to the other thread???

"PA"....????? I always read that as PHYSICAL AFFAIR, but am jarred by its use for.....something else.....

WTF??