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→Examples: removed GNU, RAID, SADD. They're acronyms, not backronyms. So 'replacement' and 'recursive' types are gone
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{{citeweb|url=http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/wiki|title=wiki - Definitions from Dictionary.com|accessdate=2006-11-15}}
{{citeweb|url=http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/wiki|title=wiki - Definitions from Dictionary.com|accessdate=2006-11-15}}
</ref> Since its application to consumer generated media, some have suggested that "wiki" means "What I Know Is".<ref name="economist-wiki">{{citeweb|url=http://www.economist.com/surveys/displaystory.cfm?story_id=6794228|title=The wiki principle|Economist.com|accessdate=2006-11-15}}</ref><!-- cited --><!-- PLEASE: Do not add new backronyms without citations and mentioning SIGNIFICANCE on [[Talk:Backronym]] This is a list of examples. It is NOT meant to be exhaustive --><!-- this might be a separate category -~~~ -->
</ref> Since its application to consumer generated media, some have suggested that "wiki" means "What I Know Is".<ref name="economist-wiki">{{citeweb|url=http://www.economist.com/surveys/displaystory.cfm?story_id=6794228|title=The wiki principle|Economist.com|accessdate=2006-11-15}}</ref><!-- cited --><!-- PLEASE: Do not add new backronyms without citations and mentioning SIGNIFICANCE on [[Talk:Backronym]] This is a list of examples. It is NOT meant to be exhaustive --><!-- this might be a separate category -~~~ -->

===Replacement===
Some backronyms are formed from an acronym that previously had another meaning, for example, phrases that have become obsolete, either for technological, political or marketing reasons.

<!-- Cited -->
*[[Students Against Destructive Decisions|SADD]] began as "Students Against Driving Drunk" in 1981, but was changed to its present name of "Students Against Destructive Decisions" in 1997 after requests from students, to expand the organization's mission.<ref name="sadd">
{{citeweb|title=History of SADD|url=http://www.sadd.org/history.htm|accessdate=2008-04-28}}</ref>

<!-- Cited -->
*[[RAID]] originally meant "Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks", and now is often said to be "Redundant Array of Independent Disks".{{cn}}

===Recursive===
Some backronyms are also [[recursive acronym]]s.
*[[GNU]], the [[open source]] software project, which stands for 'GNU's Not Unix'.<ref>{{citeweb|url=http://www.gnu.org|title=The GNU Operating System home page|accessdate=2006-12-11}}</ref>


=== Jokes and pejorative meanings===
=== Jokes and pejorative meanings===

Revision as of 05:38, 31 December 2008

A backronym (or bacronym) is a 'reverse acronym', that is a definition constructed "after the fact" to make an already existing word or words into an acronym.

Backronyms may be invented with humorous intent, or may be a type of false or folk etymology. The word is a portmanteau term combining back and acronym, first cited in a 1983 Washington Post column - "A bacronym ... is the 'same as an acronym, except that the words were chosen to fit the letters.' "[1]

Backronym versus acronym

An "acronym" is a pronounceable word derived from the initial letters of a phrase:[2] For example, the word radar comes from "Radio Detection and Ranging".[3] Letters from the originating phrase are used to construct a pronounceable word.

By contrast, a backronym is constructed by starting with a word and, beginning with the first letter, using the letters to begin each word of a phrase. The word then becomes an acronym or initialism of the newly formed phrase. In this sense, a backronym is the reversal of an acronym.

Since an acronym is defined as a word,[4] and a 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)[5] and SOS (a representation of the emergency signal used in Morse code).[4]

Examples

Backronyms can be classified along various types.[citation needed] Note that these types are not necessarily exclusive of each other, that is, a backronym could fit into more than one type.

Many backronyms are apronyms, that is, the word itself is relevant to its associated phrase.[6] The relevance may be either serious or ironic.

Pure

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

  • The word "wiki", halved from the Hawaiian phrase "wiki wiki" meaning "quick".[7] Since its application to consumer generated media, some have suggested that "wiki" means "What I Know Is".[8]

Jokes and pejorative meanings

  • Eskom: Electricity Supply Kuts Off Memorably
  • TWAIN: Technology Without An Interesting Name
  • Ford: Fix Or Repair Daily, Found On Road Dead, First on Rubbish Dump, First on Race Day, Fucked on Race Day
  • Books: Basic Object-Oriented Knowledge Systems

Education

Backronyms can be constructed for educational purposes, for example to form mnemonics so that the word or initialism is easier to remember.

An example of such a mnemonic is the Apgar score, used to assess the health of newborn children. The rating system is named after Virginia Apgar, but ten years after the initial publication, the backronym APGAR[9] was coined in the US as a mnemonic learning aid: Appearance (skin color), Pulse (heart rate), Grimace (reflex irritability), Activity (muscle tone), and Respiration.

Alcoholics Anonymous and other 12 step programs have a verbal culture that makes extensive use of backronyms[10]. They're used as teaching tools, similar to slogans like "one day at a time," or "Let go, let God," but often have an ironic edge.

  • GOD = Good Orderly Direction[11]
  • Halt = Hungry Angry Lonely or Tired
  • Fear = False Evidence Appearing Real / Forgetting everything is all right / Fuck Everything And Run / Face Everything And Recover
  • Slip = Sobriety Losing Its Priority[12]
  • Denial = Don't Even Notice I Am Lying
  • Fine = Fucked up, Insecure, Neurotic and Emotional (or) Freaked out, Insecure, Neurotic and Emotional

False

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

  • Adidas has been explained as "All Day I Dream About Sport". The word Adidas actually comes from the nickname of the company's founder, Adi Dassler.[13] It was also alternatively backronymed as "All Day I Dream About Sex"[14], a backronym popularized by the band Korn, who recorded a song A.D.I.D.A.S.. In Spanish, a popular and sarcastic backronym for Adidas is "Asociación De Idiotas Dispuestos A Superarse" ("Association Of Idiots Willing To Improve").[15]
  • Kiss is simply the name of the band, but an urban legend developed that it spells "Knights In Satan's Service".[16]
  • Perl does not stand for Practical Extraction and Report Language (although the phrase appears in "Perl documentation". {{cite web}}: Text "perl.org" ignored (help)) According to "Perl documentation". {{cite web}}: Text "perl.org" ignored (help), Perl is not an acronym.
  • Posh 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).[17] The musical Chitty Chitty Bang Bang popularised this erroneous etymology.[17]
  • Golf is not an acronym for "Gentlemen Only, Ladies Forbidden" as has been suggested. It is actually derived from the old Scots 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 called Kolven.[17]
  • Ping does not stand for "Packet InterNet Grouper", "Packet InterNet Groper", "Packet InterNet Gopher" or any such phrase. The name is merely a reference to sonar.[18]

See also

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References

  1. ^ "bacronym". Word Spy. Retrieved 2008-11-20.
  2. ^ "Acronym". Dictionary.com. Retrieved 2006-11-15.
  3. ^ "RADAR means: Radio Detection and Ranging". Nasa Explores. Retrieved 2007-03-06.
  4. ^ a b "Acronym". WhatIs.com. Retrieved 2007-03-06.
  5. ^ "Backronym Definition". PC Magazine. Retrieved 2006-11-14.
  6. ^ "What is an Apronym?". Anronyms.com. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |Accessdate= ignored (|accessdate= suggested) (help)
  7. ^ "wiki - Definitions from Dictionary.com". Retrieved 2006-11-15.
  8. ^ "The wiki principle". Retrieved 2006-11-15. {{cite web}}: Text "Economist.com" ignored (help)
  9. ^ "The Virginia Apgar Papers - Obstetric Anesthesia and a Scorecard for Newborns, 1949-1958". U.S. National Library of Medicine, NIH. Retrieved 2008-11-18.
  10. ^ For a list of common Backronyms and slogans "SoberRecoveryForum". Retrieved 2008-07-08.
  11. ^ Alcoholism Treatment Quarterly: Volume: 10 Issue: 1/2, ISSN: 0734-7324 Pub Date: 8/6/1993 "Working the 12 Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous with a Client A Counseling Opportunity" Dan L. Thompson PhD
  12. ^ "Keep Coming Back: Humor and Wisdom for Living and Loving Recovery by Meiji Stewart Google Books Result". Retrieved 2008-07-08.
  13. ^ All Day I Dream About Sport: The Story of the Adidas Brand, ISBN 1904879128
  14. ^ "Urban Legends References Pages: Adidas". Retrieved 2007-10-15. {{cite web}}: Text "Snopes.com" ignored (help)
  15. ^ "Ludoacronimia". Retrieved 2008-02-08.
  16. ^ Brothers, Fletcher A. in "The Rock Report", 1987 cites a January 1980 American Photographer article as his source.
  17. ^ a b c Quinion, Michael (2005). Port Out, Starboard Home: And Other Language Myths. Penguin Books. ISBN 0-14-101223-4.; published in the US as Quinion, Michael (2006). Ballyhoo, Buckaroo, and Spuds. HarperCollins. ISBN 0-06-085153-8.
  18. ^ "The Story of Ping".
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