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{{Short description|Acronym whose expansion includes a copy of itself}}
A '''recursive acronym''' is an acronym (or occasionally, a [[backronym]]) which [[recursion|refers to itself]] in the expression for which it stands, similar to a '''recursive [[abbreviation]]'''. Though, because of their lack of a [[termination]] condition, perhaps a more accurate term would be ''[[circular definition|circular]]'' acronym.
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2019}}


A '''recursive acronym''' is an [[acronym]] that [[recursion|refers to itself]], and appears most frequently in computer programming. The term was first used in print in 1979 in [[Douglas Hofstadter]]'s book ''[[Gödel, Escher, Bach|Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid]]'', in which Hofstadter invents the acronym GOD, meaning "GOD Over Djinn", to help explain infinite series, and describes it as a recursive acronym.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.math.cornell.edu/~mec/Summer2009/ABjorndahl/extension.html | title = Puzzles and Paradoxes: Infinity in Finite Terms | access-date = 2013-04-23 | archive-date = 15 November 2012 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20121115130941/http://www.math.cornell.edu/~mec/Summer2009/ABjorndahl/extension.html | url-status = live }}</ref> Other references followed,<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.wordspy.com/words/recursiveacronym.asp | title = WordSpy—Recursive Acronym | access-date = 2008-12-18 | archive-date = 8 October 2014 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20141008144546/http://www.wordspy.com/words/recursiveacronym.asp | url-status = dead }}</ref> however the concept was used as early as 1968 in [[John Brunner (novelist)|John Brunner]]'s science fiction novel ''[[Stand on Zanzibar]]''. In the story, the acronym EPT (Education for a Particular Task) later morphed into "Eptification for Particular Task".
==Computer-related examples==
In [[computing]], it soon became a [[hacker|hackish]] (and especially [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology|MIT]]) tradition to choose acronyms and abbreviations which 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 [[Text Editor and Corrector|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"). (Note that in German "eine" means "one" (in the feminine form) and "zwei" means "two".)


Recursive acronyms typically form [[Backronym|backwardly]]: either an existing ordinary acronym is given a new explanation of what the letters stand for, or a name is turned into an acronym by giving the letters an explanation of what they stand for, in each case with the first letter standing recursively for the whole acronym.
More recent efforts include:
*[[Allegro library|Allegro]] — Allegro Low Level Game ROutines
*[[CAVE]] — Cave Automatic Virtual Environment
*[[Cygnus Solutions|Cygnus]] — Cygnus, Your GNU Support (though Cygnus says this is a [[backronym]], while opponents maintain Cygnus, Your GNU Sucks)
*[http://www.geecs.org GEECS] - GEECS for Electronics Engineering Computers and Science
*[[GiFT]] — GiFT: Internet File Transfer, unofficially: "GiFT Isn't FastTrack"
*[[Ginac computer algebra system|GiNaC]] — GiNaC is Not a CAS
*[[GNE]] — GNE is Not an Encyclopedia!
*[[GNU]] — GNU is Not Unix!
*[http://www.informatik.uni-kiel.de/~rt-kiel/ KIEL] — [[Kiel]] Integrated Environment for Layout
*[[LAME]] — LAME Ain't an MP3 Encoder
*LIAR, a Scheme [[compiler]] — LIAR Imitates Apply Recursively
*[http://line.sourceforge.net LINE] - LINE is Not an Emulator, a utility to run Linux programs on Windows
*[http://www.mico.org/ MICO] — MICO Is COrba
*[[MINC]] — MINC Is Not C
*MINCE — MINCE is Not Complete Emacs
*[[MiNT]] — MiNT is Not TOS (later changed to "MiNT is Now TOS")
*[[Mung|mung]] — Mung Until No Good ([[backronym]], based on an earlier backronym "Mash Until No Good")
*[[NiL]] — NiL Isn't Liero
*[[PHP]] — PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor (another [[backronym]] - originated as "Personal Home Page" tools)
*[[Pine (e-mail client)|PINE]] — Pine Is Not Elm (according to Pine's author, this is a [[backronym]])
*[[PLD Linux Distribution|PLD]] — PLD Linux Distribution (originally "[[Poland|Polish]](ed) Linux Distribution")
*[[PNG]] — PNG is Not GIF (another [[backronym]] - originated as "Portable Network Graphic")
*[[RESPECT]] - Respect, Equality, Socialism, Peace, Environmentalism, Community, and Trade unionism (also a [[backronym]])
*[[RPM Package Manager|RPM]] — RPM Package Manager (originally "[[Red Hat]] Package Manager")
*[[Scaled Composites|Scaled]] — Scaled Composites: Advanced Link to Efficient Development
*[[SPARQL]] — SPARQL Protocol And RDF Query Language
*TINA — Tina Is No Acronym, or This Is No Acronym
*[http://tinn.solarvoid.com TINN] — Tinn Is Not Notepad
*TRM — TRM Recognizes Music
*TTP — The TTP Project (from [[Dilbert]])
*[[Wine (software)|Wine]] — Wine Is Not an Emulator ([[backronym]], originally Windows Emulator)
*[[YAML]] — YAML Ain't Markup Language (initially "Yet Another Markup Language")
*[[Zinf]] — Zinf Is Not FreeA*p!


==Use in computing==
The [[GNU Hurd]] project is named with a mutually recursive acronym: "GNU" stands for "GNU is Not Unix", "Hurd" stands for "Hird of Unix-Replacing Daemons," and "Hird" stands for "Hurd of Interfaces Representing Depth."
In [[computing]], an early tradition in the [[Hacker (hobbyist)|hacker]] community, especially at [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology|MIT]], was to choose acronyms and abbreviations that referred humorously to themselves or to other abbreviations. Perhaps the earliest example in this context is the [[backronym]] "Mash Until No Good", which was created in 1960 to describe [[Mung (computer term)|Mung]], and revised to "Mung Until No Good". It lived on as a recursive command in the editing language [[Text Editor and Corrector|TECO]].<sup>[[Mung (computer term)|[3]]]</sup> In 1977<ref name="eine">{{citation|title=Electronic message to BUG-LISPM|author=Daniel Weinreb|date=8 August 1977}}</ref> programmer Ted Anderson coined TINT ("TINT Is Not [[Text Editor and Corrector|TECO]]"), an editor for MagicSix. This inspired the two MIT [[Lisp Machine]] editors called [[EINE]] ("EINE Is Not [[Emacs]]", German for ''one'') and [[ZWEI]] ("ZWEI Was EINE Initially", German for ''two''), in turn inspiring Anderson's retort SINE ("SINE is not EINE"). [[Richard Stallman]] followed with [[GNU]] (GNU's Not [[Unix]]).


Recursive acronym examples often include negatives, such as denials that the thing defined is or resembles something else (which the thing defined does in fact resemble or is even derived from), to indicate that, despite the similarities, it was distinct from the program on which it was based.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://fsfe.org/freesoftware/transcripts/rms-fs-2006-03-09.en.html#the-name-gnu|title=The Free Software Movement and the Future of Freedom: The name "GNU"|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20150316191530/http://fsfe.org/freesoftware/transcripts/rms-fs-2006-03-09.en.html#the-name-gnu|archivedate=16 March 2015|author=Richard Stallman|date=March 9, 2006}}</ref>
Recursive acronyms appeared in a [[Dilbert]] comic strip, in which Dilbert states that the TTP project refers to '''T'''he '''T'''TP '''P'''roject (this is also a triply-redundant case of [[RAS syndrome]]).


An earlier example appears in a 1976 textbook on data structures, in which the pseudo-language SPARKS is used to define the algorithms discussed in the text. "SPARKS" is claimed to be a non-acronymic name, but "several cute ideas have been suggested" as expansions of the name. One of the suggestions is the [[tail recursive]] "Smart Programmers Are Required to Know SPARKS".<ref>{{cite book|title=Fundamentals Of Data Structures|author1=Ellis Horowitz|author2=[[Sartaj Sahni]]|publisher=Computer Science Press|year=1976|isbn=978-0-914894-20-9 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kdRQAAAAMAAJ&q=%22sparks%22|via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref>
A number of recursive acronyms are [[backronym]]s, which used to expand to a different string but whose expansion changed once the acronym was well-known, for one reason or another, to one which included the acronym itself. This includes at least '''PHP''' and '''RPM'''.


Other examples are the [[YAML]] language, which stands for "YAML ain't markup language" and [[PHP]] language meaning "PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor".
Other variations on this theme can be found in the following phrases from the electronics industry...


===Examples===
*LCD Display - Liquid Crystal Display Display
{{Div col|colwidth=40em}}
*IDC Connector - Insulation Displacement Connector Connector
* [[Allegro library|Allegro]]: Allegro Low LEvel Game ROutines (early versions for Atari ST were called "Atari Low Level Game Routines")
* [[AROS]]: AROS Research Operating System (originally Amiga Research Operating System)
* [[ATI Technologies|ATI]]: ATI Technologies Inc.
* [[Bird Internet routing daemon|BIRD]]: BIRD Internet Routing Daemon
* [[Cave Automatic Virtual Environment|CAVE]]: CAVE Automatic Virtual Environment
* [[cURL]]: Curl URL Request Library<ref>{{cite web |url=http://daniel.haxx.se/blog/2015/03/20/curl-17-years-old-today/ |title=curl, 17 years old today |last1=Stenberg |first1=Daniel |date=20 March 2015 |website=daniel.haxx.se |access-date=20 March 2015 |archive-date=6 December 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151206014340/http://daniel.haxx.se/blog/2015/03/20/curl-17-years-old-today/ |url-status=live }}</ref>
* [[Darcs]]: Darcs Advanced Revision Control System
* [[EINE]]: EINE Is Not Emacs
* [[FIJI (software)|FIJI]]: FIJI Is Just [[ImageJ]]
* [[Ginac computer algebra system|GiNaC]]: GiNaC is Not a CAS (Computer Algebra System)
* [[GNU]]: GNU's Not Unix
* [[GNE (encyclopedia)]]: GNE's Not Encyclopedia
* [[GPE Palmtop Environment|GPE]]: GPE Palmtop Environment
* [[gRPC]]: grpc Remote Procedure Calls
* [[JACK Audio Connection Kit|JACK]]: JACK Audio Connection Kit
* [[KGS Go Server|KGS]]: KGS Go Server
* [[LAME]]: LAME Ain't [[MP3]] Encoder<ref name="lame">{{cite web | url = http://lame.sourceforge.net/about.php | title = About LAME | access-date = 2016-02-20 | archive-date = 12 February 2016 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160212163532/http://lame.sourceforge.net/about.php | url-status = live }}</ref>
* [[LiVES]]: LiVES is Video Editing System
* [[Freemacs|MINT]]: MINT Is Not [[TRAC programming language|TRAC]]
* [https://github.com/dylan-hackers/mindy MINDY]: MINDY Is Not [[Dylan (programming language)|Dylan]] Yet
* [[MiNT]]: MiNT is Not TOS (later changed to "MiNT is Now TOS")
* [[Mung (computer term)|Mung]]: Mung Until No Good<ref name="mung">{{cite web|url= http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/M/mung.html|title= The Jargon File: Mung|access-date= 2007-10-15|archive-date= 15 June 2015|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20150615165058/http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/M/mung.html|url-status= live}}</ref>
* [[Nagios]]: Nagios Ain't Gonna Insist On Sainthood (a reference to the previous name of Nagios, "Netsaint"; ''agios'' [αγιος] is the Greek word for "saint")
* [[NiL]]: NiL Isn't Liero
* [[Ninja-ide]]: Ninja-IDE Is Not Just Another IDE
* [[PHP]]: PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor (from "Personal Home Page Tools", more frequently referenced as "PHP Tools."<ref name="History of PHP">{{cite web|title=History of PHP|url=http://www.php.net/manual/en/history.php.php|publisher=php.net|access-date=18 June 2013|archive-date=2 July 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130702191556/http://php.net/manual/en/history.php.php|url-status=live}}</ref>)
* [[Pine (e-mail client)|PINE]]: PINE Is Nearly [[Elm (e-mail client)|Elm]], originally; PINE now officially stands for "Pine Internet News E-mail"<ref name="pine-origins">{{ cite web | url = http://www.island-resort.com/pine.htm | title = What Pine Really Stands For | access-date = 2007-03-06 | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110607212819/http://www.island-resort.com/pine.htm | archive-date = 2011-06-07 }}</ref>
* [[Pip (Python)|PIP]]: PIP Installs Packages
* [[P.I.P.S.]]: P.I.P.S. Is POSIX Symbian
* [[Portable Network Graphics|PNG]]: officially "Portable Network Graphics", but unofficially "PNG's not GIF".<ref>{{Cite web|title=Web Review: PNG's NOT GIF!|url=https://people.apache.org/~jim/NewArchitect/webrevu/1997/05_09/designers/05_09_97_1.html|access-date=2021-11-24|website=people.apache.org|first=Greg|last=Roelofs|archive-date=30 March 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220330031000/https://people.apache.org/~jim/NewArchitect/webrevu/1997/05_09/designers/05_09_97_1.html|url-status=live}}</ref>
* [[RPM Package Manager|RPM]]: RPM Package Manager
* [[SPARQL]]: SPARQL Protocol And RDF Query Language
* [[PGF/TikZ|TikZ]]: TikZ ist kein Zeichenprogramm (German; TikZ is not a drawing program)
* [[:fr:TiLP|TiLP]]: TiLP is Linking Program
* [[GNU nano#History|TIP]]: TIP isn't [[Pico (text editor)|Pico]]
* [[TRESOR]]: TRESOR Runs Encryption Securely Outside RAM
* [[UIRA#UIRA|UIRA]]: UIRA Isn't Recursive Acronym
* [[Wine (software)|WINE]]: WINE Is Not Emulator<ref name="wine">{{cite web|url=http://wiki.winehq.org/FAQ#head-8b4fbbe473bd0d51d936bcf298f5b7f0e8d25f2e|title=FAQ—The Official Wine Wiki|access-date=2009-01-16|archive-date=24 February 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200224080708/https://wiki.winehq.org/FAQ#head-8b4fbbe473bd0d51d936bcf298f5b7f0e8d25f2e|url-status=live}}</ref>{{Failed verification|date=August 2024}}
* [[XAMPP]]: XAMPP Apache MariaDB PHP Perl
* [[XBMC]]: XBMC Media Center (originally Xbox Media Center)
* [[XINU]]: XINU Is Not Unix
* [[Microsoft XNA|XNA]]: XNA's Not Acronym'd
* [[YAML]]: YAML Ain't Markup Language (initially "Yet Another Markup Language")
* [[YARA]]: Yara: Another Recursive Acronym
* [[Zinf]]: Zinf Is Not FreeAmp
* [[ZWEI]]: ZWEI Was EINE Initially ("eins" and "zwei" are German for "one" and "two" respectively)
{{Div col end}}


== Non-technical examples ==
==Other examples==


===Companies and organizations===
Recursive acronyms are not limited to computing terminology. For example, some [[corporations]] have been (re)named in this way:
{{Div col}}
* [[TAP Portugal|TAP Airlines]] — TAP Air Portugal (in [[Portuguese language|Portuguese]], TAP is acronym to ''Transportes Aéreos de Portugal'' and is not recursive)
* [[BWIA]] — BWIA West Indian Airways (formerly British West Indian Airways)
* BWIA: [[BWIA West Indies Airways]] (formerly British West Indian Airways)<ref>{{Cite web|title=Airline Timetable Images|url=https://www.timetableimages.com/|access-date=2021-11-16|website=www.timetableimages.com}}</ref>
* [[Cygnus Solutions|CYGNUS Solutions]]: "Cygnus, Your GNU Solutions"
* [[VISA]] — Visa International Service Association
* [[HIJOS]]: Hijas e Hijos por la Identidad y la Justicia contra el Olvido y el Silencio<ref>{{cite web|title=H.I.J.O.S.|url=https://cl.boell.org/es/2010/10/05/hijos-hijas-e-hijos-por-la-identidad-y-la-justicia-contra-el-olvido-y-el-silencio|lang=es|date=5 October 2010|author=Paloma de la Paz Montes Araya|work=[[Heinrich Böll Foundation|Heinrich Böll Stiftung]] - Santiago de Chile|accessdate=20 June 2024}}</ref> (literally, "Daughters and Sons for Identity and Justice against Forgetfulness and Silence")
* OIL -Oil India Limited
* [[HIM International Music|HIM]]: HIM International Music, Taiwanese independent record label
* [[Mega (service)|MEGA]]: MEGA Encrypted Global Access<ref>{{cite web|title=MEGA|url=https://mega.co.nz/#help|access-date=19 January 2013|archive-date=2 January 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200102235347/https://mega.co.nz/#help|url-status=live}}</ref>
* MOM: MOM's Organic Market<ref>{{cite web |title=MOM's Organic Market homepage |url=https://momsorganicmarket.com/ |publisher=MOM's Organic Market |access-date=8 June 2022 |archive-date=10 June 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220610113426/https://momsorganicmarket.com/ |url-status=live }}</ref>
* SAAB: [[Saab Automobile AB]]
* TAP: TAP Air Portugal
* VISA: [[Visa International Service Association]]<ref>{{Cite web|title=Visa International Service Association|url=https://www.bloomberg.com/profile/company/4824Z:US|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210425235757/https://www.bloomberg.com/profile/company/4824Z:US|archive-date=April 25, 2021|access-date=2021-11-16|website=www.bloomberg.com}}</ref>
* [[ZINC database|ZINC]]: ZINC Is Not Commercial
* OIL: [[Oil India|Oil India Limited]]. However it can be debatable as "Oil" is a noun and the company is in the oil industry.
{{Div col end}}


===In media===
There are also some [[organization]]s that employ recursive acronyms:
{{Div col}}
* [[MOMS Club]] — MOMS Offering Moms Support
*The initials for the [[Commodore CDTV]] stand for Commodore Commodore Dynamic Total Vision.
* TTP: a technology project in the ''[[Dilbert]]'' comic strip. The initials stand for "The TTP Project".<ref>{{cite web |title=Dilbert's TTP Project |url=http://dilbert.com/strip/1994-05-18 |website=Dilbert |access-date=9 July 2018 |archive-date=10 July 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180710012425/http://dilbert.com/strip/1994-05-18 |url-status=dead}}</ref>
* [[Grunge|GRUNGE]]: defined by [[Homer Simpson]] in ''[[The Simpsons]]'' episode ''[[That '90s Show (The Simpsons)|That '90s Show]]'' as "Guitar Rock Utilizing Nihilist Grunge Energy", another uncommon example of a recursive acronym whose recursive letter is neither the first nor the last letter.
* [[Bob (Twin Peaks)|BOB]]: the primary antagonist from the series ''[[Twin Peaks]]''. His name itself is an acronym standing for "Beware of BOB".
* [[KOS-MOS]]: a character from the ''[[Xenosaga]]'' series of video games. "KOS-MOS" is a recursive acronym meaning "Kosmos Obey Strategical Multiple Operation System".
* [[Hiroshi Yoshimura]]'s "A・I・R" stands for "AIR IN RESORT".
{{Div col end}}


===Brands and products===
Finally, it should be noted that TIARA Is A Recursive Acronym.
{{Div col}}
* [[Mazda MX-5|MIATA]]: MIATA is Always the Answer <ref name=MSN-AA1jnSBk> {{Cite web |url= https://www.msn.com/en-us/autos/enthusiasts/miata-is-the-answer-why-i-finally-bought-one/ar-AA1jnSBk |title= Miata Is The Answer: Why I Finally Bought One |author= David LaChance |date= 4 November 2023 |agency= Hemmings |publisher= MSN }} </ref>
* The [[GNU Hurd]] project is named with a mutually recursive acronym: "Hurd" stands for "Hird Unix-Replacing [[Daemon (computer software)|Daemon]]s", and "Hird" stands for "Hurd Interfaces Representing Depth."
* [[Jini]] claims the distinction of being the first recursive anti-acronym: 'Jini Is Not Initials'.<ref>[http://www.artima.com/jini/faq.html#acronym ''FAQ for JINI-USERS Mailing List''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130917065721/http://www.artima.com/jini/faq.html#acronym |date=17 September 2013 }}, Retrieved 18 November 2013</ref><ref>Introduction to ''The Jini Specification,'' Arnold et al, Pearson, 1999, {{ISBN|0201616343}}</ref> It might, however, be more properly termed an anti-backronym because the term "Jini" never stood for anything in the first place. The more recent "[[Microsoft XNA|XNA]]", on the other hand, was deliberately designed that way.
{{Div col end}}


===Special===
==Recursive Powers of LISP==
{{Div col}}
Recursive acronyms have been known to be used as examples to demonstrate the [[recursive]] powers of [[LISP]]. For example, [[Douglas Hofstadter]] uses tato in several of his articles from his [http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node=Metamagical%20Themas Metamagical Themas].
* RPM, PHP, XBMC and YAML were originally conventional acronyms which were later redefined recursively. They are examples of, or may be referred to as, backronymization,{{Citation needed|date=September 2010|reason=There's little evidence that this word exists outside of Wikipedia.}} where the official meaning of an acronym is changed.
* Most recursive acronyms are recursive on the first letter, which is therefore an arbitrary choice, often selected for reasons of humour, ease of pronunciation, or consistency with an earlier acronym that used the same letters for different words, such as PHP, which now stands for "PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor", but was originally "Personal Home Page". However [[Yopy|YOPY]], "Your own personal YOPY" is recursive on the last letter.
* A joke implying that the middle initial "B." in the name of [[Benoit B. Mandelbrot]] stands for "Benoit B. Mandelbrot" plays on the idea that [[fractals]], which Mandelbrot studied, repeat themselves at smaller and smaller scales when examined closely.
{{Div col end}}


===Other===
By substituting the phrase 'tato (and tato only)' for every occurrence of tato, you end up with:
{{Div col}}
* According to [[Hayyim Vital]], a 16th–17th century [[Kabbalah|kabbalist]], the [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]] word ''adam'' (אדם, meaning "man") is an acronym for ''adam, dibbur, maaseh'' (man, speech, deed).<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.sefaria.org/Pri_Etz_Chaim%2C_Gate_of_Rosh_Hashana.2.23?lang=bi&with=all&lang2=en |title=Pri Etz Chaim, Gate of Rosh Hashana 2:23 |access-date=30 September 2021 |archive-date=30 September 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210930195059/https://www.sefaria.org/Pri_Etz_Chaim,_Gate_of_Rosh_Hashana.2.23?lang=bi&with=all&lang2=en |url-status=live }}</ref>
* According to [[Isaac Luria]], a 16th-century kabbalist, the Hebrew word ''[[tzitzit]]'' (ציצת in its Biblical spelling, meaning "ritual fringes") is an acronym for ''tzaddik yafrid tzitziyotav tamid'' ("a righteous person should separate [the strings of] his ''tzitzit'' constantly").<ref>[https://www.sefaria.org.il/Mishnah_Berurah.8.18?vhe=Wikitext&lang=bi&with=all&lang2=en Mishnah Brurah, 8:18]</ref>
{{Div col end}}


==See also==
n=0: tato<br>
* {{Annotated link|Pleonasm#Bilingual tautological expressions|Bilingual tautological expressions}}
n=1: tato (and tato only)<br>
* {{Annotated link|RAS syndrome}} (Redundant Acronym Syndrome syndrome)
n=2: tato (and tato only) (and tato (and tato only) only)<br>
* {{Annotated link|Self-reference}}
n=3: tato (and tato only) (and tato (and tato only) only) (and tato (and tato only) (and tato (and tato only) only) only)
* TLA, the [[three-letter acronym]] for three-letter acronyms
* {{Annotated link|Web Ontology Language}}, which intentionally uses the acronym "OWL"


== References ==
etc.
{{Reflist}}
* {{JargonFile}}


==References==
==External links==
* {{Wiktionary-inline|recursive acronym}}
*{{Jargon}}

==See also==
[[RAS syndrome]] (Redundant Acronym Syndrome syndrome)


[[Category:Acronyms]]
[[Category:Recursion]]
[[Category:Rhetoric]]
[[Category:Self-reference]]
[[Category:Types of words]]
[[Category:Word play]]
[[Category:Word play]]
[[Category:Acronyms]]


[[it:Acronimo#Acronimo ricorsivo]]
[[als:Rekursives Akronym]]
[[bg:Рекурсивен акроним]]
[[ca:Acrònim recursiu]]
[[cs:Rekurzivní zkratka]]
[[da:Rekursivt akronym]]
[[de:Rekursives Akronym]]
<!-- [[en:Recursive acronym]] -->
[[es:Acrónimo recursivo]]
[[fr:Acronymie récursive]]
[[is:Endurkvæm skammstöfun]]
[[it:Acronimo ricorsivo]]
[[ja:再帰的頭字語]]
[[lt:Rekursyvios santrumpos]]
[[pl:Akronim rekurencyjny]]
[[ru:Рекурсивный акроним]]
[[fi:Rekursiivinen nimeäminen]]
[[sv:Rekursiv akronym]]
[[th:คำย่อแบบกล่าวซ้ำ]]

Latest revision as of 17:01, 23 September 2024

A recursive acronym is an acronym that refers to itself, and appears most frequently in computer programming. The term was first used in print in 1979 in Douglas Hofstadter's book Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid, in which Hofstadter invents the acronym GOD, meaning "GOD Over Djinn", to help explain infinite series, and describes it as a recursive acronym.[1] Other references followed,[2] however the concept was used as early as 1968 in John Brunner's science fiction novel Stand on Zanzibar. In the story, the acronym EPT (Education for a Particular Task) later morphed into "Eptification for Particular Task".

Recursive acronyms typically form backwardly: either an existing ordinary acronym is given a new explanation of what the letters stand for, or a name is turned into an acronym by giving the letters an explanation of what they stand for, in each case with the first letter standing recursively for the whole acronym.

Use in computing

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In computing, an early tradition in the hacker community, especially at MIT, was to choose acronyms and abbreviations that referred humorously to themselves or to other abbreviations. Perhaps the earliest example in this context is the backronym "Mash Until No Good", which was created in 1960 to describe Mung, and revised to "Mung Until No Good". It lived on as a recursive command in the editing language TECO.[3] In 1977[3] programmer Ted Anderson coined TINT ("TINT Is Not TECO"), an editor for MagicSix. This inspired the two MIT Lisp Machine editors called EINE ("EINE Is Not Emacs", German for one) and ZWEI ("ZWEI Was EINE Initially", German for two), in turn inspiring Anderson's retort SINE ("SINE is not EINE"). Richard Stallman followed with GNU (GNU's Not Unix).

Recursive acronym examples often include negatives, such as denials that the thing defined is or resembles something else (which the thing defined does in fact resemble or is even derived from), to indicate that, despite the similarities, it was distinct from the program on which it was based.[4]

An earlier example appears in a 1976 textbook on data structures, in which the pseudo-language SPARKS is used to define the algorithms discussed in the text. "SPARKS" is claimed to be a non-acronymic name, but "several cute ideas have been suggested" as expansions of the name. One of the suggestions is the tail recursive "Smart Programmers Are Required to Know SPARKS".[5]

Other examples are the YAML language, which stands for "YAML ain't markup language" and PHP language meaning "PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor".

Examples

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  • Allegro: Allegro Low LEvel Game ROutines (early versions for Atari ST were called "Atari Low Level Game Routines")
  • AROS: AROS Research Operating System (originally Amiga Research Operating System)
  • ATI: ATI Technologies Inc.
  • BIRD: BIRD Internet Routing Daemon
  • CAVE: CAVE Automatic Virtual Environment
  • cURL: Curl URL Request Library[6]
  • Darcs: Darcs Advanced Revision Control System
  • EINE: EINE Is Not Emacs
  • FIJI: FIJI Is Just ImageJ
  • GiNaC: GiNaC is Not a CAS (Computer Algebra System)
  • GNU: GNU's Not Unix
  • GNE (encyclopedia): GNE's Not Encyclopedia
  • GPE: GPE Palmtop Environment
  • gRPC: grpc Remote Procedure Calls
  • JACK: JACK Audio Connection Kit
  • KGS: KGS Go Server
  • LAME: LAME Ain't MP3 Encoder[7]
  • LiVES: LiVES is Video Editing System
  • MINT: MINT Is Not TRAC
  • MINDY: MINDY Is Not Dylan Yet
  • MiNT: MiNT is Not TOS (later changed to "MiNT is Now TOS")
  • Mung: Mung Until No Good[8]
  • Nagios: Nagios Ain't Gonna Insist On Sainthood (a reference to the previous name of Nagios, "Netsaint"; agios [αγιος] is the Greek word for "saint")
  • NiL: NiL Isn't Liero
  • Ninja-ide: Ninja-IDE Is Not Just Another IDE
  • PHP: PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor (from "Personal Home Page Tools", more frequently referenced as "PHP Tools."[9])
  • PINE: PINE Is Nearly Elm, originally; PINE now officially stands for "Pine Internet News E-mail"[10]
  • PIP: PIP Installs Packages
  • P.I.P.S.: P.I.P.S. Is POSIX Symbian
  • PNG: officially "Portable Network Graphics", but unofficially "PNG's not GIF".[11]
  • RPM: RPM Package Manager
  • SPARQL: SPARQL Protocol And RDF Query Language
  • TikZ: TikZ ist kein Zeichenprogramm (German; TikZ is not a drawing program)
  • TiLP: TiLP is Linking Program
  • TIP: TIP isn't Pico
  • TRESOR: TRESOR Runs Encryption Securely Outside RAM
  • UIRA: UIRA Isn't Recursive Acronym
  • WINE: WINE Is Not Emulator[12][failed verification]
  • XAMPP: XAMPP Apache MariaDB PHP Perl
  • XBMC: XBMC Media Center (originally Xbox Media Center)
  • XINU: XINU Is Not Unix
  • XNA: XNA's Not Acronym'd
  • YAML: YAML Ain't Markup Language (initially "Yet Another Markup Language")
  • YARA: Yara: Another Recursive Acronym
  • Zinf: Zinf Is Not FreeAmp
  • ZWEI: ZWEI Was EINE Initially ("eins" and "zwei" are German for "one" and "two" respectively)

Other examples

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Companies and organizations

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In media

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  • The initials for the Commodore CDTV stand for Commodore Commodore Dynamic Total Vision.
  • TTP: a technology project in the Dilbert comic strip. The initials stand for "The TTP Project".[18]
  • GRUNGE: defined by Homer Simpson in The Simpsons episode That '90s Show as "Guitar Rock Utilizing Nihilist Grunge Energy", another uncommon example of a recursive acronym whose recursive letter is neither the first nor the last letter.
  • BOB: the primary antagonist from the series Twin Peaks. His name itself is an acronym standing for "Beware of BOB".
  • KOS-MOS: a character from the Xenosaga series of video games. "KOS-MOS" is a recursive acronym meaning "Kosmos Obey Strategical Multiple Operation System".
  • Hiroshi Yoshimura's "A・I・R" stands for "AIR IN RESORT".

Brands and products

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  • MIATA: MIATA is Always the Answer [19]
  • The GNU Hurd project is named with a mutually recursive acronym: "Hurd" stands for "Hird Unix-Replacing Daemons", and "Hird" stands for "Hurd Interfaces Representing Depth."
  • Jini claims the distinction of being the first recursive anti-acronym: 'Jini Is Not Initials'.[20][21] It might, however, be more properly termed an anti-backronym because the term "Jini" never stood for anything in the first place. The more recent "XNA", on the other hand, was deliberately designed that way.

Special

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  • RPM, PHP, XBMC and YAML were originally conventional acronyms which were later redefined recursively. They are examples of, or may be referred to as, backronymization,[citation needed] where the official meaning of an acronym is changed.
  • Most recursive acronyms are recursive on the first letter, which is therefore an arbitrary choice, often selected for reasons of humour, ease of pronunciation, or consistency with an earlier acronym that used the same letters for different words, such as PHP, which now stands for "PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor", but was originally "Personal Home Page". However YOPY, "Your own personal YOPY" is recursive on the last letter.
  • A joke implying that the middle initial "B." in the name of Benoit B. Mandelbrot stands for "Benoit B. Mandelbrot" plays on the idea that fractals, which Mandelbrot studied, repeat themselves at smaller and smaller scales when examined closely.

Other

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  • According to Hayyim Vital, a 16th–17th century kabbalist, the Hebrew word adam (אדם, meaning "man") is an acronym for adam, dibbur, maaseh (man, speech, deed).[22]
  • According to Isaac Luria, a 16th-century kabbalist, the Hebrew word tzitzit (ציצת in its Biblical spelling, meaning "ritual fringes") is an acronym for tzaddik yafrid tzitziyotav tamid ("a righteous person should separate [the strings of] his tzitzit constantly").[23]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Puzzles and Paradoxes: Infinity in Finite Terms". Archived from the original on 15 November 2012. Retrieved 23 April 2013.
  2. ^ "WordSpy—Recursive Acronym". Archived from the original on 8 October 2014. Retrieved 18 December 2008.
  3. ^ Daniel Weinreb (8 August 1977), Electronic message to BUG-LISPM
  4. ^ Richard Stallman (9 March 2006). "The Free Software Movement and the Future of Freedom: The name "GNU"". Archived from the original on 16 March 2015.
  5. ^ Ellis Horowitz; Sartaj Sahni (1976). Fundamentals Of Data Structures. Computer Science Press. ISBN 978-0-914894-20-9 – via Google Books.
  6. ^ Stenberg, Daniel (20 March 2015). "curl, 17 years old today". daniel.haxx.se. Archived from the original on 6 December 2015. Retrieved 20 March 2015.
  7. ^ "About LAME". Archived from the original on 12 February 2016. Retrieved 20 February 2016.
  8. ^ "The Jargon File: Mung". Archived from the original on 15 June 2015. Retrieved 15 October 2007.
  9. ^ "History of PHP". php.net. Archived from the original on 2 July 2013. Retrieved 18 June 2013.
  10. ^ "What Pine Really Stands For". Archived from the original on 7 June 2011. Retrieved 6 March 2007.
  11. ^ Roelofs, Greg. "Web Review: PNG's NOT GIF!". people.apache.org. Archived from the original on 30 March 2022. Retrieved 24 November 2021.
  12. ^ "FAQ—The Official Wine Wiki". Archived from the original on 24 February 2020. Retrieved 16 January 2009.
  13. ^ "Airline Timetable Images". www.timetableimages.com. Retrieved 16 November 2021.
  14. ^ Paloma de la Paz Montes Araya (5 October 2010). "H.I.J.O.S." Heinrich Böll Stiftung - Santiago de Chile (in Spanish). Retrieved 20 June 2024.
  15. ^ "MEGA". Archived from the original on 2 January 2020. Retrieved 19 January 2013.
  16. ^ "MOM's Organic Market homepage". MOM's Organic Market. Archived from the original on 10 June 2022. Retrieved 8 June 2022.
  17. ^ "Visa International Service Association". www.bloomberg.com. Archived from the original on 25 April 2021. Retrieved 16 November 2021.
  18. ^ "Dilbert's TTP Project". Dilbert. Archived from the original on 10 July 2018. Retrieved 9 July 2018.
  19. ^ David LaChance (4 November 2023). "Miata Is The Answer: Why I Finally Bought One". MSN. Hemmings.
  20. ^ FAQ for JINI-USERS Mailing List Archived 17 September 2013 at the Wayback Machine, Retrieved 18 November 2013
  21. ^ Introduction to The Jini Specification, Arnold et al, Pearson, 1999, ISBN 0201616343
  22. ^ "Pri Etz Chaim, Gate of Rosh Hashana 2:23". Archived from the original on 30 September 2021. Retrieved 30 September 2021.
  23. ^ Mishnah Brurah, 8:18
  • This article is based in part on the Jargon File, which is in the public domain.
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