What does "ee.uu" really mean?

Question

In English we say, "I am from the United States of America."

Or, we say, "I am from the U.S."

In Spanish we say, "Soy de Los Estados Unidos."

Or, we say, "Soy de EE.UU."

At least one of those E's and one of those U's abbreviates the E of Estados and the U of Unidos.

What in the heck do the other ones stand for? What does "EE.UU." really mean?

The only thing I can figure out is that "E.U." commonly stands for "European Union" so they couldn't use that.

By the way, the flaming filter wouldn't let me put "EE.UU." in the title of this question because it was all in caps.

Oh, good question! - revmaf, Sep 30, 2010

Answer 1

Doubling the letters indicates plurality.

Where else is this used? - JoyceM, Sep 30, 2010

I learned something new! Thanks! - revmaf, Sep 30, 2010

Answer 2

Lorenzo's correct.

The doubling of the letters E and U indicated that it is a plural word.

Take a look in your dictionary and you'll see other abbreviations written the same way.

Thank you I was wondering about that , but was not 'game' enough to ask. - ray76, Sep 30, 2010

Answer 3

By the way, an interesting bit from Google answers:

The English language knows this custom too, albeit in a few cases only. For instance, the abbreviation for "page" in singular is "p.", while "pages" in plural are abbreviated as "pp.".

And, I think your second P.S. at the end of a letter is P.P.S. - JoyceM, Sep 30, 2010

P P S = post post script - KevinB, Sep 30, 2010

Answer 4

other examples of common use for this plural value of capital letters (bold letters stand for capital letters):

rr.pp. ==> Relaciones públicas.

ff.aa. ==> Fuerzas Armadas.

ff.cc. ==> Ferrocarriles

rr.hh. ==> Recursos humanos

Answer 5

The correct way is EE. UU., with one period after each double letter. Writing E.E.U.U. is wrong.

Interesting...I think that I've seen it both ways in newspapers. I'll be on the lookout now! - --Mariana--, Sep 30, 2010

Thanks! I'll never make that mistake again! - JoyceM, Sep 30, 2010

Answer 6

Okay, I found this link. The question came up once before.

It didn't show up in my search because I used E.E.U.U. and the question was titled EEUU.

Thanks everyone!