Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
| Domain | Definition |
Computing | IANAL // [Usenet] Abbreviation, "I Am Not A Lawyer". Usually precedes legal advice. Source: Jargon File. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
One or both of these abbreviations usually precede opinions about law warning people not to take their opinion as professional legal advice. Many jurisdictions have legal restrictions on actually, or even appearing to, give legal advice, or otherwise practicing as a lawyer without legal qualifications and official registration.
This expression became more and more common on online web forums starting from the year 2000, when debate about file sharing and P2P applications started to focus on copyright, privacy and fair use issues. Frequently, people start their comments with IANAL to say that they are not a legal professional before stating their opinion.
Sometimes, in a somewhat humorous way, one of the chat participants is actually a lawyer, and will start his message with IAAL (I am a lawyer).
On Slashdot it is popular to start postings with "IANAL, but...".
Note: Most Wikipedians are not lawyers, and Wikipedia does not give legal advice
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "IANAL."
| The following table is compiled from various sources, across various languages. When English abbreviations or acronyms come from a non-English source, this is noted. | |||
| Entry | Source | Expression | Field |
IANAL | English | I Am Not A Lawyer | Computer - (slang, Usenet, IRC) |
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |||
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day |
ianal | 2 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
Direct Anagrams: lanai, liana. | |
| Words within the letters "a-a-i-l-n" | |
-1 letter: alan, anal, anil, lain, nail. | |
-2 letters: aal, ail, ain, ala, ana, ani, lin, nil. | |
-3 letters: aa, ai, al, an, in, la, li, na. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-a-i-l-n" | |
+1 letter: agnail, alanin, animal, kalian, lamina, lanais, lianas, manila, narial, nasial, salina. | |
+2 letters: abelian, actinal, aeolian, affinal, agnails, alanine, alanins, alation, albinal, alkalin, alumina, analgia, anality, ancilla, anginal, animals, basinal, carinal, cranial, fantail, ganglia, jalapin, kalians, laminae, laminal, laminar, laminas, laniard, laniary, lanital, logania, mailman, manilas, manilla, matinal, nadiral, paginal, paladin, platina, salinas, salpian, tailfan, vaginal, valiant, valonia, vanilla. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
Hexadecimal (or equivalents, 770AD-1900s) (references)49 41 4E 41 4C |
| Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519; backwards) (references)
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| American Sign Language (origins from 1620-1817 in Italy and, especially, France) (references)
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| Semaphore (1791, in France) (references)
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| Braille (1829, in France) (references)
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Morse Code (1836) (references).. .- -. .- .-.. |
| Dancing Men (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1903) (references)
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Binary Code (1918-1938, probably earlier) (references)01001001 01000001 01001110 01000001 01001100 |
HTML Code (1990) (references)I A N A L |
ISO 10646 (1991-1993) (references)0049 0041 004E 0041 004C |
| British Sign Language (Fingerspelling, BSL; 1992, British Deaf Association Dictionary of British Sign Language) (references)
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Encryption (beginner's substitution cypher): (references)4335483546 |
| 1. Expressions: Internet 2. Abbreviations 3. Acronyms 4. Anagrams | 5. Orthography 6. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
