In all of my Australianness, when I read it I think "Dear Hubby", as opposed to "Husband".

My "DH" is now an "XH", and I also have a LEB - Loser Ex-Boyfriend, too!

Glad to learn it doesn't mean 'Dead Horse' !

I used to think it meant "divorced husband" or "damn husband" when reading it in context in whiney comments. It always makes me pause and have to translate. I hate the use of these cutesy trendy initials. It breaks the rhythm of the message, makes it seem less natural, makes the poster seem less real and human, and makes it harder to "hear" the message as conversation in my imagination.

And ditto to the comments by ekscrunchy and Pausanias.

It just takes five additional keystrokes to type husband(or three to type wife).

I was caught off guard at first by the acronyms, but just made myself see/read DH as "husband", etc. I quickly began doing that without second thought, and the flow and content of the message remain intact. :)

Luckily, DH is open to more interpretation than RC - the abbreviation for Richard Cranium.

And PLEASE . . . don't tell me no one else ever thinks of that!

Direct hit?

A lot of the abbreviations bother me. I always thought that DH meant dear husband, but I don't know anyone who would ever refer to her husband as her 'dear husband' unless he's dearly departed. Or DS, DD, whatever.

I tried using BH as in Better half, but after some of the interpretations by OPs, I soon gave up. [Bad husband was my favourite, followed by big husband; incidently, he's neither].

PS - I thought DH meant Dear Heart - quite sweet or ironic, depending on mood or context.

I've tried to get used to 'DH' and the rest but I can't - they still irritate me. I don't buy the abbreviation thing either, since it's just as likely to be found in a verbose post containing no other abbreviations as a brief one.

And can someone explain why so many posters write "nite" for the saving of one keystroke? Is it possible that some just can't spell the word?

Spelling "night" in that way is just laziness; I can't imagine that anyone thinks this is the correct way to spell it. Smacks of a tacky "nite club" with pretensions on some lonely highway.

But the abbreviations are the things that really make me grit my teeth. I hate to say this, but it seems...well, I won't say it. Suffice to say that I don't think it is a mark of a good writer, to say the least. Maybe used by people who might call their store a "shoppe" here in the US.

I dont use D(ANYONE) but can I still use lol? I love lol.

DH...why it stands for designated hitter in American baseball...a device that has destroyed major league baseball and changed the very balance of the game and thank goodness it's only used in the American League...in the National League they play baseball the way it's supposed to be played.

But I guess if you're not American, you don't have a clue what I'm talking about.

Cripes, I am an American and I don't have a clue as to what you are talking about xyz, lol (hi SeaUrchin!)

With all the problems in the world I can't believe that anyone could get irritated with Fodorites using DH, DS, DD etc (hi Neil!)

Ok, we all get irritated by something or someone. My irritation is rude and "trying to be in control" posters.

Fun thread that you started Sampaguita! BTW, SO usually means "signaficant other" in case anyone was wondering.

...part of the reason I tried to lighten it up!

Some days, I think it stands for Darned husband! LOL!

My impression is that people use these abbreviations, in part, to preserve some anonymity (they don't want to provide identifying names).

I've sort of gotten used to the abbreviations. I do find that it simplifies reading trip reports - don't have to keep up with the cast and what their relationship to the OP is. Trip reports with initials really confuse me ("Who was CZ again?") but I'm sort of dense anyway. The only problem is that my inner voice reads the "dear" part which is kind of weird since I don't know these people. I also find it useful when the various children are identified by DS1 and DS2, etc. But then I'm always having to scroll back up for ages. If abbreviations need to be used, my proposal would be: idenfify people as H(usband), W(ife), and the children as S or D and unclude age; thus S13 or D17.

Agreed!