[texhax] LaTeX equivalent of Paul Taylor's abbrevs.sty?

[Joel C. Salomon]

I just fount Paul Taylor’s abbrev.sty, at
<http://paultaylor.eu/tex/abbrevs.sty>, which provides macros for things
like e.g., i.e., etc.  There seems to be a fair amount of TeXnique so
that one can write \etc without escaping the space and get {\it etc}.\␣

Is there a LaTeX package that can do a similar thing?  Or is there
someone willing to hold my hand while I LaTeXify it?

—Joel Salomon