The interest in different ways of replenishing the lexical stock of a particular language, in the principles of modeling new units of nomination, in the creation of such linguistic forms that fix new structures of knowledge in the language, does not weaken in linguistics. Thus, the rapid development of scientific and technological progress, as well as international integration processes in almost all areas of the modern world, require the emergence of new concepts and, consequently, terminological units. The terms are complex words, as well as multicomponent combinations of words, reflecting the necessary features of a concept more accurately. In the modern professional language, there are short versions of the term - shortenings, abbreviations, acronyms. The article briefly describes the concept of "abbreviation" and provides the historical significance of this terminological unit, gives an important reason for the appearance of abbreviations and the impact of the "abbreviation" in modern English professional language in the field of technosphere and fire safety. The important prerequisites for the appearance of an abbreviated version of a word or phrase are disclosed, in addition, the article describes the more common types of abbreviations using examples in the field of fire and rescue equipment and weapons.