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As of late 2016, is config considered to be a word in proper English, as opposed to a slang shorthand (verbal and written)?

The reason it may be is that it is used all the time, particularly in software development and configuration. The reason it may not be is that it is not prone to showing up in dictionaries. While the latter makes a strong case against it, if a word is commonly used and accepted in official writings, it could still be regarded academically as correct and proper, with only a few particular organizations having yet to give their internal stamps of approval.

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    according to Ngram config is less than 5% of the usage of configuration. And in Google Scholar, most example of config seem to be in other use than the word in itself i.e "config.sys, config.txt , Config (apparently a program of that name). As similar example, look at the Ngram for prof vs professor, in books, the full "professor" is still used twenty time more in writing than "prof", even after 5 centuries of usage of the abbreviation. So, I did not make an exhaustive search, but as for now I'd use a full "configuration" in academia.
    – P. O.
    Commented Oct 14, 2016 at 14:23

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"Config" is just an abbreviation of "configuration". Programmers like shortening things, and there are plenty of words used in a development context I wouldn't consider formal words; for example a few words ago I almost typed "dev context" instead of "development context".

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