SWF

English

Etymology

(file format): SWF originated as an abbreviation for Shockwave Flash.^[1] This usage was changed to the backronym Small Web Format to eliminate confusion with a different technology, Shockwave, from which SWF derived.^[2]^[3] There is no official resolution to the initialism SWF by Adobe.^[4]

Pronunciation

(file format): IPA^(key): /ˈswɪf/^[5]

Noun

SWF (plural SWFs)

(in personal ads) Initialism of single white female.
Coordinate term: SWM
- 2007, Buddy Whittington (lyrics and music), “Romance Classified”:
  SWF seeks same / Asian or Hispanic or African American
(finance) Initialism of sovereign wealth fund.
- 2024 March 2, A. Anatha Lakshmi, William Langley, Mercedes Ruehl, “Norway's SWF sells Jardine stake over ‘severe environmental damage’ risks”, in FT Weekend, Companies & Markets, page 13:
  Norway's SWF sells Jardine stake over ‘severe environmental damage’ risks [title]
(computing) A file encoded in the defunct Adobe Flash file format SWF.
- 2008, Chris Allen, Wade Arnold, Aral Balkan, Nicolas Cannasse, John Grden, Moses Gunesch, Marc Hughes, R. Jon MacDonald, Andy Zupko, The Essential Guide to Open Source Flash Development, Berkeley, Calif.: Friends of Ed, Apress, →ISBN, page 131:
  On the Web, linking to a SWF directly is not a very attractive option. You can’t control the content around the SWF or the title of the page in the browser title area. It’s also difficult to add content that’s friendly to search engines, and it’s impossible to detect a Flash version or provide alternate content for people with special needs. For these reasons, most developers choose to embed their SWFs in an HTML page for their end users.
- 2010, Roger Braunstein, ActionScript® 3.0 Bible, 2nd edition, Indianapolis, Ind.: Wiley Publishing, Inc., →ISBN, page 8:
  A SWF file, or simply “a SWF,” is an efficient, compressed binary file that can contain graphics, animation, text, bitmaps, sounds, video, and even arbitrary data. […] When compiling AIR apps, an .air file is generated, but even this is a package that contains SWFs for its executable ActionScript code.
- 2010 December, Michael James Williams, “Introduction”, in Facebook Graph API Development with Flash, Birmingham: Packt Publishing Ltd, →ISBN:
  When you run a SWF using Flash Player on your desktop, it loads and runs the SWF. Well, of course, why wouldn't it? When you run a SWF in a browser, this isn't always the case, though. Sometimes, browsers cache SWFs, meaning that they save a copy locally and then load that copy—rather than the online version—the next time you request it.

Proper noun

SWF

(software) Initialism of Spring Web Flow.
(software, historical) Initialism of Shockwave Flash.

References

^ Mark Schaeffer (2008) “[Exploring the Flash Interface] Organizing Your Files”, in Adobe® Flash® CS3 Professional How-Tos: 100 Essential Techniques, Berkeley, Calif.: Adobe Press, Peachpit, →ISBN, page 15:
When Flash came along, Macromedia wanted to take advantage of the well-promoted Shockwave trademark. Therefore, the files that Flash generated for online use were called “Shockwave Flash Files,” or SWF for short. As Flash became more popular and Director less so, the Shockwave name began to seem more like a liability than an asset. As a result, Flash Player files ceased to be called Shockwave files; but the SWF extension lives on.
^ “SWF”, in PCMag‎^[1], archived from the original on 2020-08-08, Encyclopedia: “Originally, SWF meant "ShockWave Flash," which was confusing because Shockwave is a different authoring package that uses the .DCR extension for playback files (see Shockwave). As a result, SWF was renamed "Small Web Format."”
^ Jennifer Niederst (2001 September) “[Flash and Shockwave] Creating Flash Movies”, in Web Design in a Nutshell: A Desktop Quick Reference, 2nd edition, Sebastopol, Calif.: O’Reilly Media, Inc., →ISBN, page 438: “When the movie is ready to go on the Web, it must be exported to .swf format. The suffix originally stood for “Shockwave Flash,” but in the face of confusion with Macromedia’s Shockwave for Director format, Macromedia has changed its tune and now translates .swf to “Small Web Format.””
^ John Dowdell (Adobe employee) (2007 July 27) “'SWF' stands for...?”, in JD on EP‎^[2], archived from the original on 2016-09-19:
It's easiest to think of "SWF" as meaning "SWF" (pronounced "swiff"), rather than being an acronym. But there are historical links to the "Shockwave Flash" and "Small Web Format" monikers. […] But the "Small Web Format" naming did have some informal use in the late 1990s, semi-facetiously, about the same time as "SWF doesn't stand for anything" came about. My take: it's just "swiff" -- faster to say than "jay-peg" or "em-pee-three".
^ Adobe Systems Incorporated (2010) “Introduction”, in Adobe® Flash® Player 10.1 Administration Guide‎^[3], archived from the original on 2010-11-21, page 1: “Adobe® Flash® Player is the software that allows computers to play multimedia content contained in SWF (pronounced “swiff”) files, which are the main type of file used by Flash Player.”

Anagrams

FSW, FWs, SFW

[1] Mark Schaeffer (2008) “[Exploring the Flash Interface] Organizing Your Files”, in Adobe® Flash® CS3 Professional How-Tos: 100 Essential Techniques, Berkeley, Calif.: Adobe Press, Peachpit, →ISBN, page 15:
When Flash came along, Macromedia wanted to take advantage of the well-promoted Shockwave trademark. Therefore, the files that Flash generated for online use were called “Shockwave Flash Files,” or SWF for short. As Flash became more popular and Director less so, the Shockwave name began to seem more like a liability than an asset. As a result, Flash Player files ceased to be called Shockwave files; but the SWF extension lives on.

[2] “SWF”, in PCMag‎^[1], archived from the original on 2020-08-08, Encyclopedia: “Originally, SWF meant "ShockWave Flash," which was confusing because Shockwave is a different authoring package that uses the .DCR extension for playback files (see Shockwave). As a result, SWF was renamed "Small Web Format."”

[3] Jennifer Niederst (2001 September) “[Flash and Shockwave] Creating Flash Movies”, in Web Design in a Nutshell: A Desktop Quick Reference, 2nd edition, Sebastopol, Calif.: O’Reilly Media, Inc., →ISBN, page 438: “When the movie is ready to go on the Web, it must be exported to .swf format. The suffix originally stood for “Shockwave Flash,” but in the face of confusion with Macromedia’s Shockwave for Director format, Macromedia has changed its tune and now translates .swf to “Small Web Format.””

[4] John Dowdell (Adobe employee) (2007 July 27) “'SWF' stands for...?”, in JD on EP‎^[2], archived from the original on 2016-09-19:
It's easiest to think of "SWF" as meaning "SWF" (pronounced "swiff"), rather than being an acronym. But there are historical links to the "Shockwave Flash" and "Small Web Format" monikers. […] But the "Small Web Format" naming did have some informal use in the late 1990s, semi-facetiously, about the same time as "SWF doesn't stand for anything" came about. My take: it's just "swiff" -- faster to say than "jay-peg" or "em-pee-three".

[5] Adobe Systems Incorporated (2010) “Introduction”, in Adobe® Flash® Player 10.1 Administration Guide‎^[3], archived from the original on 2010-11-21, page 1: “Adobe® Flash® Player is the software that allows computers to play multimedia content contained in SWF (pronounced “swiff”) files, which are the main type of file used by Flash Player.”

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