Backronym: Encyclopedia - Backronym

Backronym

A backronym or bacronym is a type of acronym that is constructed to match the letters of an actual word appropriate in some fashion to the topic at hand. The word "backronym" is a portmanteau (fusion) of back and acronym and was coined in 1983.

An acronym is a word created from the initial letters of a phrase: RAdio Detection And Ranging becomes radar. Note that an acronym is an actual word -- anything that has not actually been assimilated as a word is an initialism.

The backronym is a phenomenon in which the short word exists first and a phrase is constructed which the backronym supposedly came from. There are both official (and generally serious), as well as unofficial (and often humorous) backronyms. When a backronym is peddled as the origin of a word, it is often an example of false etymology; when it is widely believed it may have the status of a folk etymology, but more usually it is intended and understood as a joke, in which case it would be classed as an example of fake etymology.

A pure backronym occurs when a sequence of letters is commonly understood to stand for a phrase that in fact had no role in its original conception. An example is SOS, the international distress signal that was chosen solely for its easy recognizability in Morse code, but which is often thought to stand for "save our ship", "save our souls" or something similar. An older distress signal, CQD, also has a backronym: "come quick, distress (or danger)." Another example is the word "wiki", from the Hawaiian word meaning quick. Since its application to consumer generated media, some have suggested that wiki means, "What I Know Is."

Some backronyms are back-formed by replacing one or more words in an acronym with another, when the original meaning is deemed obsolete or inaccurate. DVD, for example, was originally an acronym for "digital video disc"; when it was realized that a DVD could be used for non-video applications, the term "digital versatile disc" was invented (although it did not become official, since the official meaning behind DVD is nothing at all, i.e. it doesn't stand for anything in particular). [1] Another example is GSM, which originally started as an acronym for a French research group called "Groupe Spécial Mobile", but was later modified to stand for Global System for Mobile Communications. A well-known example in the United States is the SAT, which originally stood for "Scholastic Aptitude Test" but was changed to "Scholastic Assessment Test" after parent groups complained that the word "aptitude" implied that test scores reflected only innate talent and not preparation. Recently, it was changed again to officially stand for nothing. SAP originally stood for Spanish Audio Program, but eventually came to be described as Secondary Audio Program. GCC originally stood for "GNU C" compiler, but compilers for various other languages have been added, and the acronym is now expanded to "GNU Compiler Collection."

Other backronyms are back-formed from an existing word that was not previously an acronym. Generally these 'backronyms' are apronyms, as the word used as the 'backronym' is relevant to the expanded phrase it stands for. The relevance may be either serious or ironic. Most apronyms are examples of 'backronyms'. An example of this is the word "acronym" itself which can be A Clever Representation Of Names You Manufacture. Many jocular (and often also derogatory) apronyms are created as a form of wordplay. An example of this is the former name for PC Card, PCMCIA: People Cannot Memorize Computer Industry Acronyms (it was originally an initialism for Personal Computer Memory Card Industry Association), or the numerous backronyms constructed by conservative groups for the ACLU.

There are also false backronyms, in which letters are commonly, but inaccurately, thought to represent a phrase. An example is A.D., which stands for Anno Domini (Latin: "in the year of the Lord") and counts years since the birth of Jesus. However, many people incorrectly interpret its definition as 'After Death [of Christ]'. Another is R.I.P, which is actually an internationally-used acronym for Latin Requiescat in pace, not an English acronym for "Rest in Peace", as often thought, although the Latin and the English phrases have similar meaning and the same initials. Also, RPG is commonly thought to stand for "Rocket-Propelled Grenade", but actually stands for a Russian phrase meaning "handheld antitank grenade-launcher".

Some 'backronyms' are recursive acronyms like GNU, PHP or the pseudo-acronym JINI.

Backronym - Humorous

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, Snafu is an acronym meaning "Situation Normal All Fucked Up". For the sake of politeness, it was later backronymed as "Situation Normal All Fouled Up".

See also

• -onym
• List of backronyms
• False etymology
• Fake etymology
• back-formation
• apronym
• retronym
• TLA
• abbreviation
• IHTFP

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Backronym", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki