Backronym

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A backronym or bacronym is a portmanteau of backward and acronym^[1] coined in 1983.^[2][3] It usually refers to a phrase which is constructed backwards from the phrase's abbreviation, the abbreviation being an initialism or acronym. Sometimes backronym refers to the initialism or acronym itself,^[4] but usually in those cases, it is a "replacement" backronym, the abbreviation already having an associated phrase. When the backronym phrase becomes more popular than the original, the word becomes an anacronym.^[5]

An example of a backronym from the word acronym is as follows.

Acronyms Condense Representations Of Neologisms You Memorize

In this example, because the word acronym itself is not an acronym, the phrase above is a pure backronym, not a replacement backronym. Since the phrase indirectly refers to the word itself, it is also apronymic. Also, because the word acronym itself appears in its backronym, the phrase is also a recursive-backronym. If this backronym helps you remember the word acronym or backronym, then it is also a mnemonic.

Contents 1 Backronym versus acronym 2 Types 2.1 Pure 2.2 Replacement 2.3 Apronym 2.4 Mnemonic 2.5 Anacronym 2.6 False 2.7 Recursive 2.8 Offensive 3 See also 4 External links 5 References

[edit] Backronym versus acronym

An acronym is a pronounceable word created from the initial letters of a phrase:^[6] the word radar rhymes with "say tar" and comes from "Radio Detection and Ranging".^[7] Letters from the originating phrase are used to construct a pronounceable word. By contrast, a backronym is constructed by starting with a word (or an initialism) and, beginning with the first letter, each letter is used to form the next word of the phrase. The word then becomes an acronym of the newly formed phrase. In this sense, a backronym is the reversal of an acronym.

Since an acronym is defined as a word,^[8] and backronym is constructed from an acronym, it logically follows that the phrase must come from a word. However, this rule is commonly broken, even by dictionaries providing examples such as DVD (an initialism, see image)^[9] and SOS (an abbreviation of the emergency signal used in Morse code).^[8]

[edit] Types

Backronyms can be classified along various types. Note that these types are not all exclusive of each other, that is, a backronym can be mnemonic, pure, and recursive. However, a backronym cannot be both pure and replacement.

[edit] Pure

A pure backronym occurs when the root word was not previously or commonly known as an acronym or abbreviation. Examples:

• The word "wiki", from the Hawaiian word meaning "quick".^[10] Since its application to consumer generated media, some have suggested that "wiki" means "What I Know Is".^[11]
• Adidas has been written about in All Day I Dream About Sport: The Story of the Adidas Brand. Other backronyms in pop culture endure. Adidas is actually a portmanteau of the shoe company's founder, Adolf Dassler, whose nickname was Adi.^[12]
• TWAIN is sometimes referred to as Technology Without An Interesting Name. The origin of the word is from Rudyard Kipling's "The Ballad of East and West" — "...and never the twain shall meet...", which was appropriated to reflect the relative difficulty of connecting scanners and personal computers. It was changed to the upper case form to make it more distinctive, as well as fit the style of the era computing acronyms.^[13]
• The Java programming language has been described as "Just Another Vague Acronym".^[14]
• KISS is simply the name of the band, but is often cynically referred to as "Knights In Satan's Service".^[15]
• Perl is a programming language; its name was originally "Pearl", but was changed when its author discovered the PEARL programming language. The backronym "Practical Extraction and Report Language" has been used since the original release,^[16] but the author tongue-in-cheekly suggests the backronym "Pathologically Eclectic Rubbish Lister".^[17]

Sometimes the backronym is so commonly heard, that it is generally but incorrectly believed to have been used in the formation of the word. Examples of these include:

• Posh, which did not originally stand for "Port Out Starboard Home" (referring to 1st class cabins shaded from the sun on outbound voyages east, and homeward heading voyages west).^[18] The musical Chitty Chitty Bang Bang popularised this erroneous etymology, and thereby established what some call a backronym.^[18]
• Golf is not an acronym for "Gentlemen Only, Ladies Forbidden" as has been suggested. It is actually derived from the Scottish name for the game, gowf. This word may, in turn, be related to the Dutch word kolf, meaning "bat", or "club", and the Dutch sport of the same name.^[18]
• SOS, the international distress signal is chosen solely for its easy recognizability in Morse code(...---...).^[19] The International Wireless Telegraph Convention makes no mention that it stands for "save our ship", "save our souls",^{[20][21][22][21][23]} or "send out succour".^[21]

[edit] Replacement

Some backronyms are back-formed from an acronym which is an abbreviation with another meaning. For example,

• IBM is the official abbreviation for "International Business Machines", but is sometimes jokingly referred to as "I've been moved", used among many IBM employees because of the frequent position changes within the company.^[25]
• SPAM luncheon meat, whose name is a portmanteau of "SPiced hAM" has been unofficially assigned acronyms such as "Specially Processed Assorted Meat", "Something Posing As Meat", "Some Parts Are Meat"^[26] or "Specially Prepared American Meat".

[edit] Apronym

Many backronyms are apronyms, that is, the word itself is relevant to its associated phrase.^[27] The relevance may be either serious or ironic. Many jocular (and often also derogatory) apronyms are created as a form of wordplay. Examples of this certainly include those of the self-referential variety:

• TLA— Three-Letter Acronym. Not actually an acronym since it is not pronounced as such. However a suitable replacement backronym is Three-Letter Abbreviation
• TLB— Twenty-four Letter Bacronym and Twenty-five Letter Backronym

In fact, most of the examples cited in the following sections would also count as apronyms.

[edit] Mnemonic

Backronyms are typically constructed for educational purposes, to form mnemonics so that the word or initialism is easier to remember. For instance, when learning to read sheet music, students often learn

Every Good Boy Does Fine

to help remember that these notes (E, G, B, D, and F) are "on the lines".^[28]

[edit] Anacronym

Some backronyms are replacements of other phrases which have become obsolete, either for technological, political or marketing reasons. The result is an anacronym. For example,

• ESV, originally, in 1970, Experimental Safety Vehicle. Since 1991, Enhanced Safety of Vehicles.^[29]
• RAID, originally meant "Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks", and now usually "Redundant Array of Independent Disks". This arose as RAID was originally a way to expand the linear capacity of unreliable commodity hard disk devices while providing extra reliability. Now that the hard disk is standard, "independent" is more appropriate.^[30]
• SAT originally meant Scholastic Achievement Test. In 1941, the College Board changed its name to Scholastic Aptitude Test (whereas "achievement" suggests what a student has accomplished, "aptitude" suggests a student's potential). In 1990, the name was changed to Scholastic Assessment Test, and finally in 1994, the initials were officially declared to stand for nothing at all, reflecting the College Board's reluctance to specify anything definite that the test actually measures.^[31]
• DVDs were originally designed as carriers for audio-visual data, and as such the abbreviation originally stood for "Digital Video Disc". As the format became more popular as a generic data storage device, a different semi-official expansion was created, namely "Digital Versatile Disc". However, the name officially does not stand for anything.^[9]

[edit] False

While not a type per se, many backronyms are falsely believed to come from an acronym or initialism which means something else. Unlike anachronysms, these original meanings still hold. Examples include:

• 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]'^[32] – commonly assumed because B.C. stands for "Before Christ".^[32]
• C.E., and B.C.E. which stand for "of the Common Era" and "Before the Common Era", which correspond to the same reference system as do B.C. and A.D., were created as a religion-neutral alternative to specify the year. People familiar with the meanings of B.C./A.D. frequently mistake the new initialisms as modern translations of the original initialisms, either "Christian Era" or "Christ's Eminence" (as in "The year 512 of Christ's Eminence").
• R.I.P., an internationally used acronym for Latin Requiescat in pace ("May he rest in peace")^[33] is not, as often stated, an English acronym for "Rest in Peace".
• RPG, for Russian Ruchnoy Protivotankovy Granatomyot ("handheld antitank grenade-launcher"), now used as an abbreviation of "Rocket-Propelled Grenade".^[34] (RPG has also recently come to be used for role-playing game.)
• RSVP does not stand for "Respond to Sender Via Post" or "Respond So Very Promptly" but for the French "Répondez s'il vous plaît" which means "Please reply".^[35]
• AC/DC (Anti-Christ/Devil's Children)^[36] or (After Christ, the Devil Comes) is a myth. It actually stands for the electrical term, Alternating Current/Direct Current. The band's founders (Angus and Malcolm Young) saw the letters on the back of a sewing machine,^[36] and thought that a name associated with electricity suited their energetic style.

[edit] Recursive

Some backronyms are formed recursively. Perhaps the most famous of these is GNU, the open source software project, which is said to stand for GNU's Not Unix.^[37] Later software projects also adopted recursive names, including:

• PINE — PINE is Nearly Elm, referring to a now-obscure e-mail program named "Elm" (an acronym for "ELectronic Mail").^[38] Note, however, that PINE now officially stands for "Program for Internet News & E-mail".
• LAME— LAME Ain't an MP3 Encoder.^[39]
• WINE— WINE Is Not an Emulator.^[40]
• PHP— PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor.^[41]
• UIRA — UIRA Isn't a Recursive Acronym.

[edit] Offensive

Backronyms can often be the sense of derogatory humor. Here are some examples:

• Army stands for "Aren't Really Marines Yet".^[42]
• Marine stands for "Muscles Are Required, Intelligence Not Essential".^[43]
• MARTA, Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority, is often referred to as "Moving Africans Rapidly Through Atlanta".^[44]
• Bimbo has been interpreted to mean "Body IMpressive; Brain Optional".^[45]
• NASA, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, referred to deridingly as "Need Another Seven Astronauts", after the 1986 Challenger explosion, in which seven astronauts were killed.^[7]

[edit] See also

• Retronym
• Recursive acronym

[edit] External links

• Backronym expansions of ACRONYM (Acronym Finder)
• World Wide Words is not specifically about backronyms, but several false examples are discussed among its articles.

[edit] References