Pow means 'prisoner of war'.

[MrsTerryPratchett]

I keep seeing the Princess of Wales referred to as the 'PoW'. It's annoying me so I thought I'd come here and see if anyone else is annoyed.

Ever heard of King Canute OP?

Me too. Automatically my brain thinks prisoner of war.

In the US, it's POW, with a capital O, for prisoner of war.
Missing in action is MIA.

Acronyms arebwritten using all caps.

PoW isn't an acronym; it's an abbreviation.

As an aside, I asked Alexa when Kate Middleton married Prince William.

She replied "Catherine, Princess of Wales and Prince William of Wales are no longer married"

I mean acronyms can mean a range of different things in different contexts. To be pedantic.

Yes, I clicked on that thread wondering who on earth had been taken as a Prisoner of war.

News to them, I imagine.

I worked in retail for years - mainly men’s suiting where POW would be on labels as it was for the fabric - Prince of Wales check.

Even in this thread I'm automatically reading it as prisoner of war, despite knowing this is about it being Princess of Wales. Prince Charles was never referred to as PoW ever (and he will always be Prince Charles in my mind, if I think of him as King then that means QEII has died and that's a nope).

I'm not annoyed by it as such, but I find it very, very jarring.

To be pedantic... PoW is an initialism.

Acronyms are pronounced as words - eg scuba, laser, AIDS.

Initialisms are not - eg BBC, USA

I also agree with you.

I noticed it and it puzzled me momentarily but I wouldn't go so far as to say it annoyed me.

It's usage in this context is definitely new, and given this particular set of initials already has a well-established meaning, it's somewhat jarring and unwelcome.

@RainbowZebraWarrior As a previous Mumsnetter once said "I'm Autistic, pedantry is fitted as standard".

I love this 😁

It will be why my ds has never once in his life let it lie when I've rounded the time up or down to the nearest 5 minutes!

Ah , so that’s what it means. I did wonder.

It’s obviously not a matter of confusion. Everyone knows that PoW is Princess of Wales and it refers to Kate. Prisoner of war refers to Harry.

You’re all wrong. POW is what happens when Batman punches the joker.

I think it’s actually a function of internalised embarrassment at the ‘Kate Midleton has been kidnapped by aliens/is getting a huge facial tattoo removed/ has run away to sea with Rose Hanbury’ stuff. Peoole have gone all formal now they know she has cancer and postponed the announcement for the unimpeachable reason of waiting till the children were off school.

I kind of agree with you MrsTerryPratchett, I also saw PoW and thought prisoner of war. It's a bit different to computer-related acronyms. My great uncle was a PoW of the Japanese, and died after the war as a result of the brutality he suffered there. So it's a sensitive one. Maybe it's a generation thing.

Siri is aware they are still married - I just checked.

Also I thought PoW meant prisoner of war until I read the thread and realised it was about the Princess.

POW = Prisoner Of War

PoW = Princess of Wales.

Why does one have ‘of’ with a capital and the other not?

Surely they should both be the same?

Exactly.

Oh, I was skimming Active threads earlier, and wondered why people were talking about Prisoners of War.

Yes, I know that there are loads of different meanings for different acronyms, depending on the context, but some are sort of fixed ....... BBC .....MOT .... NHS .... and yes, PoW would be one of those.

This makes no sense. 'Of' is suddenly capitalised in one and not the other. Why?

@ForestClearing I think you might be on to something. Suddenly she's worthy of a title but they CBA (a nod to the PP) to write it out.

@IdaPrentice maybe it is that. It jars in any other context.

Yes - I find it jarring and feels quite disrespectful to the prisoners of war.