Why is there a preference for seemingly inconsistent punctuation of abbreviations like US, UK, EU?

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Today, the WSJ reports: “EU, U.K. Make Progress in Brexit Talks but Clash Over Divorce Bill.” So, it appears as though they have no uniform/simple rule for such abbreviations’ punctuation.

I’ve looked into this before and found that the Wikipedia-preferred abbreviations are U.S., UK, EU. Oxford Living Dictionaries has US, UK, EU. Encyclopædia Britannica has U.S., U.K., EU. Merriam-Webster has U.S./US, UK, EU.

So, it appears that several styles do not require a simple (style-internal) consistency for such abbreviations. What is the idea behind this preferred (seeming) inconsistency?

Answer

Mostly because actual usage is inconsistent.

Wikipedia

Wikipedia does NOT prefer mixing “U.S.” (with periods) with “UK” or “EU” according to their style guide:

Some American editors prefer to use “U.S.” However, use a consistent style within the same article; use “US” in articles with other national abbreviations, e.g. “UK” or “UAE”.

Oxford Living Dictionaries

The actual entries are consistent, but elsewhere they note that American English uses periods in some abbreviations:

  1. In both American and British English, if you are using initial letters to represent words, you don’t normally need to put a full stop/period after:

    NBC

  2. In American English, however, it is common to use a full stop/period as an alternative style for certain abbreviations, in particular:

    USA or U.S.A.
    US or U.S.

Merriam-Webster

They explain the whole “US” vs. “U.S.” thing here:

Question
When to use “US” and when to use “U.S.”? – Mianxiu, China

Answer
This is an excellent question and a hard one to answer, because the rules are changing all the time. You will see examples of this abbreviation written both ways, with periods (U.S.), and without (US). To make matters worse, some well-respected style guides recommend the first style, and others prefer the second. Finally, the choice partly depends on whether U.S. is functioning as a noun or as an adjective.

Encyclopædia Britannica

I don’t know what style guide (if any) they use, but I’d say their choices are valid:

  • It is common to use “U.S.” (with periods)
  • “U.K.” (with periods) is the older and more traditional spelling (e.g. here).
  • EU has always been spelled without periods. It’s not really an option to spell it with periods.

It’s also interesting to note what spelling they use on their websites:

  • USA.gov uses “U.S.” (with periods)
  • GOV.UK uses “UK” (no periods)
  • Europa.eu uses “EU” (no periods)

Here are some links to what different style guides recommend:

Attribution
Source : Link , Question Author : Řídící , Answer Author : Laurel

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