Recursive acronym

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A recursive acronym (or occasionally recursive initialism) is an abbreviation which refers to itself in the expression for which it stands. Due to the nature of the English language, which would infinitely recurse left-recursive phrases, recursive abbreviations are circular definitions.

1 Computer-related examples
2 Non-technical examples
3 Fictional examples
4 References
5 See also

[edit] Computer-related examples

In computing, it soon became a hackish (and especially MIT) tradition to choose acronyms and abbreviations that referred humorously to themselves or to other abbreviations. Perhaps the earliest example in this context, from about 1977 or 1978, is TINT ("TINT Is Not TECO"), an editor for MagicSix. This inspired the two MIT Lisp Machine editors called EINE ("EINE Is Not Emacs") and ZWEI ("ZWEI Was EINE Initially").

Noted efforts (which nearly all look suspiciously like a simple acronym with an arbitrary letter stuck on the front to make it read better phonetically) include:

Allegro — Allegro Low LEvel Game ROutines
CAVE — Cave Automatic Virtual Environment
Cygnus — Cygnus, Your GNU Support
GEECS — GEECS for Electronics Engineering Computers and Science
GCK - GCK Compiles Karel, Karel the robot console compiler and judge
giFT — giFT: Internet File Transfer, unofficially: "giFT Isn't FastTrack"
GiNaC — GiNaC is Not a CAS
GNE — GNU's Not an Encyclopedia
GNU — GNU's Not Unix
HERBIS — Herbis is the Erudite Recorded Botanical Information Synthesizer
KIEL — Kiel Integrated Environment for Layout
LAME — LAME Ain't an MP3 Encoder
LIAR, a Scheme compiler — LIAR Imitates Apply Recursively
LINE — LINE is Not an Emulator
MICO — MICO Is COrba
MINC — MINC Is Not C
MINCE — MINCE is Not Complete Emacs
MINDY — MINDY Is Not Dylan Yet (MINDY interpreter of the Dylan language)
MiNT — MiNT is Not TOS (later changed to "MiNT is Now TOS")
MINT — MINT Is Not TRAC
Mung — Mung Until No Good
Nagios — Nagios Ain't Gonna Insist On Sainthood
NiL — NiL Isn't Liero
PINE — PINE Is Nolonger Elm
PHP — PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor (originally "Personal Home Page" tools, officially changed for PHP 3)
PIPS — PIPS Is POSIX on Symbian
PLD — PLD Linux Distribution (originally "Polish(ed) Linux Distribution")
RPM — RPM Package Manager (originally "Red Hat Package Manager")
SAMI — SAMI is Another Model of the Ionosphere
SCInterface - SCInterface Control Interface
Scaled — Scaled Composites: Advanced Link to Efficient Development
SPARQL — SPARQL Protocol And RDF Query Language
TIARA — TIARA Is A Recursive Acronym
TINA — Tina Is No Acronym
TTP - The TTP Project (From Dilbert)
TINN — Tinn Is Not Notepad
TinNS — TinNS is not a Neocron Server
TRM — TRM Recognizes Music
UIRA — UIRA Isn't a Recursive Acronym
Wine — Wine Is Not an Emulator
Xinha — Xinha is not htmlarea
XINU — Xinu Is Not Unix
XNA — XNA's Not Acronymed, a Microsoft game development framework
YAML — YAML Ain't Markup Language (initially "Yet Another Markup Language")
ZINC — ZINC is not commercial, a free database for virtual screening
Zinf — Zinf Is Not FreeAmp
Zombie — Zombie-Oriented Machine-Being Interface Engine

The GNU Hurd project is named with a mutually recursive acronym: "Hurd" stands for "Hird of Unix-Replacing Daemons," and "Hird" stands for "Hurd of Interfaces Representing Depth."

The GNU Brain project is another mutually recursive acronym: "Brain" stands for "Brian relates any independent node" and "Brian" itself stands for "Brain implements a network".

RPM and PHP were originally conventional initialisms which were later redefined recursively. They are not true backronyms, however, as the names were already abbreviations and are pronounced as initials rather than as words.

[edit] Non-technical examples

Recursive acronyms are not limited to computing terminology. For example, some corporations have been named or renamed in this way:

BWIA — BWIA West Indies Airways (formerly British West Indian Airways)
GES — GES Exposition Services (formerly Greyhound Exposition Services)
OIL — Oil India Limited (not really self-referential since oil is a word anyway)
SAAB — Saab Automobile Aktiebolaget (Formerly Svenska Aeroplan Aktiebolaget.)
TAP Air Portugal — in Portuguese, however, TAP is an acronym for Transportes Aéreos de Portugal and is not recursive
VISA — Visa International Service Association
LINK (UK) = Link Interchange NetworK, the UK ATM switching organisation.

There are also some organizations that employ recursive acronyms:

MOMS Club — MOMS Offering Moms Support

[edit] Fictional examples

KOS-MOS - Kosmos Obey Strategical Multiple Operation Systems, from the video game series Xenosaga.
In the BBC series Look Around You, a parody of British educational television programs from the Seventies, MATHS was said to stand for "Mathematical Anti-Telharsic Harfatum Septomin".
A recursive initialism appeared in a Dilbert comic strip, in which Dilbert states that the TTP project refers to The TTP Project (this is also a triply-redundant case of RAS syndrome).
In Twin Peaks, Laura Palmer figured that her nemesis, Bob, was an acronym for Beware of Bob
In the Archie Comics series Sonic the Hedgehog, the digital son of Eggman is named A.D.A.M., which has two meanings, one of which is "A.D.A.M. Determines Anonymous' Movements".