TLA – Three Letter Acronym
In order to build a comprehensive list of TLAs, you have to start with the king of TLAs, TLA – Three Letter Acronym.
Let’s break down TLA:
T is Three as in the number of letters used in a TLA.
L is Letter or the kind of character that is used in a TLA.
A is Acronym which is an abbreviation formed from the initial letters of other words and pronounced as a word.
Here is the Wikipedia entry on TLA which dives into its history which apparently dates back to 1975. I’m not going to second guess that, but I know that the use of TLAs has accelerated in the last 20 years along with other computer jargon.