Opinion: When did "sqls" become a thing?

Given that SQL is an acronym for Structured Query Language, a reference to “a SQL” is then a reference to a language. Or the term SQL just refers to the language.

So something that I find really odd now is the number of people using the word SQL as a synonym for a SQL statement. I keep hearing references like this:

We need to execute several SQLs against the server.

I need to run a few SQLs.

and so on.

I live in Australia where we’re well known for mangling parts of the English language and, importantly, abbreviating almost everything. “McDonald” becomes “Macca”, etc.

We don’t do that with other languages. We don’t write “I wrote four Spanishs” instead of saying “I wrote four Spanish sentences”.

But I can’t be the only one who finds the reference to SQLs as pretty jarring.

Would love to hear your thoughts.

2019-12-10