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.

Such as HRH?

OMG! I thought you were joking but I just checked and, yep, that’s what Alexa says. I feel so betrayed - either the Royal family are lying to us or I can never believe a single thing Alexa tells me ever again. I don’t know how to go on.

Alexa is obviously being a bitch. Siri is fine.

But back to the subject, I grew up avidly reading newspapers during a period of time when Paul Gascoigne was always in the news, Sharon and Tracey were common names often derided, and there was a state of flux in the Middle East when Ariel Sharon was often referred to. Sharon/Gaza/Sharon/Gazza in various headlines was enough to make me always: read.stop.think.read again 😁
I know exactly what you mean OP.

Strictly of course HRH is actually an initialism rather than an acronym. I'd argue however that PoW is too because I suspect people don't pronounce it as one word (pow), but read out the individual letters.
As an aside my father was a PoW in WW2, so I always read this initialism as meaning prisoner of war.

PoW won’t have been around in Diana’s time because online fora were not around in Diana’s time.

Yes, initialism is a better term than acronym.

100 % agree, OP.

Seeing as the Princess of Wales is currently relevant and prisoners of war are part of our (very important) history, I don’t see any problem or likely confusion in this instance but historically, yes POW had quite a different meaning

I'm reading the posts as Prisoners of War, I'm also reading KP as Katie Price and for some reason the posts with ED in them I'm reading them as erectile disfunction.

Well, I’m quite enjoying the narrative of Katie Price communicating on behalf of Prisoners of War with Erectile Dysfunction.

That is an interesting combination!

What's the ED ?

Different example - same thing - years ago farmers rang the AI man, asking for him to come and artificially inseminate an animal. It was easier than persuading Jack's bull to walk three miles. I don't know if that kind of AI still happens, but I am always reminded of it when I hear AI used to mean Artificial Intelligence.

Obviously, LAZINESS is involved !. If people would just move their fingers a bit more they could type it out in full, iyswim.

Eating Disorder? It was being suggested as a reason for all the plasters at one point.

The more I "move my fingers", the more I have to fight against my delinquent autocorrect. It absolutely HATES the English word for Cymru.

Yes.

When I read a thread name like "indifference to Prisoners of war" it was a bit misleading.

I understand abbreviations do overlap when each is relevant in a different context, but in this case both is about people and Kate just doesn't need another abbreviation.

When my students email me about the CBA I know they mean computer based assessment. When my friends message me that they CBA about something, I know they mean they can't be arsed.

Context provides the clarity, and I can't imagine many contexts where Prisoner of War and Princess of Wales could both make sense.

When on when shall we subjects ever learn?

Yes but you frequently have to open the thread to discover the context. Obviously if it's in the royal family board, it's unlikely to be prisoner of war but if it's in chat or aibu, then it could be either.

When I become leader of the world, I will dictate that all thread titles should include sufficient context to ensure clarity. 🔨 (that's a gavel in case anyone is wondering).

You'll have to come for more than just acronyms - can I suggest beginning with threads in AIBU with the title "AIBU?"

Oh believe me, I won't just be limiting it to acronyms (or initialisms if we're being pedantic, which we are).

And yes, a thread title of AIBU in AIBU will be a hanging offence.

To some older people with questionable A level results, PoW means "Polytechnic of Wales".

In your example the context comes with knowing the author.

Here we deal with thread titles, and in the Similar threads section we can see "POW" [chat] and "Indifference to PoW?". Yes, the other is from the Royal family, but MN users are notoriously bad in taking this piece of context into account. Moreover, it is totally plausible that some royal person would say something which might sound as being indifferent to some prisoners of some war.

Have pity on the poor folks who post about Kate Middleton. They post with such frequency that they can't be expected to manage without abbreviations. I think they should go further, and abbreviate everything they want to post into one single abbreviation -- TSOFB (the same old frenzied bullshit).