Forum: english.stackexchange.com
Tags: <abbreviations>
Title: Short alternatives of the word Authentication and the word Authorisation
Question: As a programmer I use the word Authentication and the word Authorisation in my code. I'd like to find nice abbreviations or alternative words for each of them that are not ambiguous and has reasonably large 'psychological distance' between. i.e. they don't look too similar i.e 'Auth' is not OK because it is ambiguous. At the moment I have just removed some letters Authtictn Authristn Any suggestions? Update: Since this question is now under threat I have moved it's gist to: http://www.eatmybusiness.com/food/2014/02/08/short-alternatives-of-the-word-authentication-and-the-word-authorisation/272/

Answers:
sents: text: I've worked with IETF people and developers who spend a lot of time on Apache, who tend to use: AuthN - Authentication AuthZ - Authorization
text: You'll find these abbreviations in a lot of IETF technical documents.
text: Yes, I know British spelling prefers s over z (authorisation).
answer_details: author: english.stackexchange.com/users/129/njd
score: 40
sents: text: You could think of replacing the word 'authentication' with 'identification', since in this context, I think they are probably equivalent.
text: You could then substitute 'authorization' with 'permission'.
text: Then, abbreviate as 'ident' and 'perm'.
answer_details: author: english.stackexchange.com/users/433/pkaeding
score: 4
sents: text: I suppose you could take the approach taken when abbreviating 'internationalization' as 'i18n' (and 'localization' as 'l10n': 'authentication' =
text: > 'a12n' 'authorization' =
text: > '
text: a11n'
text: The idea is to keep the first and last letters of the word, and replace all of the interior letters with a number representing the count of the letters removed.
text: Of course, looking at 'a12n' and 'a11n', you may not know the meaning right away, so this is probably not the best solution.
answer_details: author: english.stackexchange.com/users/433/pkaeding
score: 1
sents: text: authent. and authoris. ?
text: I would say that your current versions are fairly difficult to read, and also not particularly easy to tell apart from one another at a glance.
answer_details: author: english.stackexchange.com/users/449/Kosmonaut
score: 1
sents: text: I would chose a synonym authenticate synonyms: attest, authenticate, avouch, testify (to), vouch (for), witness authorization synonyms: allowance, authorization, clearance, concurrence, consent, granting, green light, leave, license (or licence), sanction, sufferance, warrant (As a non-native speaker)
text: I would chose attest and grant . .
answer_details: author: english.stackexchange.com/users/519/stacker
score: 1
sents: text: Why not just: - Autho - Authe
answer_details: author: english.stackexchange.com/users/64940/PawZar
score: 0

Summary of the answers:
Potential abbreviations for the word "Authentication" and "Authorization" include "AuthN" and "AuthZ", which are common in a lot of IETF technical documents. You could also consider "authent." and "authoris." or "autho" and "authe".
The options are to use AuthN and AuthZ or authent. and authoris.or a synonym or Autho - Authe.
Potential abbreviations for the word "Authentication" and "Authorization" include "AuthN" and "AuthZ", which are common in a lot of IETF technical documents. You could also consider "authent." and "authoris." or "autho" and "authe".
IETF people and developers who spend a lot of time on Apache, tend to use:   AuthN - Authentication   AuthZ - Authorization . You could use authent.  and  authoris. or S0: autho.  ad authe.
 I've worked with IETF people and developers who spend a lot of time on Apache, who tend to use:   AuthN - Authentication   AuthZ - Authorization. You could use: - Autho - Authe  
Potential solutions to this problem could be "Autho" or "AuthZ".