Some Linguistic terms

Backronym

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A backronym (or bacronym or also retronym) is a phrase that is constructed "after the fact" from a previously existing word or abbreviation, the abbreviation being an initialism or an acronym. The term is a false acronym, and sometimes used to refer to the initialism or acronym itself,^[1] 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. (But other than that, backronyms and anacronyms have little to do with each other.)

The word backronym is a neologism, coined in 1983.^[2]

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. If this backronym helps you remember the word acronym or backronym, then it is also a mnemonic.

Backronym versus acronym

An acronym is a pronounceable word created from the initial letters of a phrase:^[3] The word radar comes from "Radio Detection and Ranging".^[4] 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, using each letter to form the next word of the 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,^[5] 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)^[6] and SOS (a representation of the emergency signal used in Morse code).^[5]

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.

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".^[7] Since its application to consumer generated media, some have suggested that "wiki" means "What I Know Is".^[8]
• Adidas has been written about in All Day I Dream About Sports: The Story of the Adidas Brand. Adidas is actually a portmanteau of the shoe company's founder, Adolf Dassler, whose nickname was Adi (Dassler).^[9] It has also been alternatively backronymed as "All Day I Dream About Sex".^[10]. In Spanish, a popular and sarcastic backronym for Adidas is "Asociación De Idiotas Dispuestos A Superarse" (which could be translated as "Association For Idiots Willing To Be Better").^[11]
• Kiss is simply the name of the band, but is often cynically referred to as "Knights In Satan's Service".^[12]
• Ford (automobiles), the company name of eponymous derivation from the name of the founder, Henry Ford, is humorously (or cynically, depending on personal experience) assigned the backronyms "Fix Or Replace Daily", the redundant "Fix Or Repair Daily", "First On Race Day", "Found On [a] Rubbish Dump", "F'd Over Rebuilt Dodge", or "Found On/Off Road, Dead". Other automobile manufacturers have seen similar treatment with their names and initials: Fiat = "Fix It Again, Tony"; General Motors Corporation (GMC) = "Garage Mechanic's Companion", Lotus = "Lots Of Trouble, Usually Serious".
• Perl does NOT stand for Practical Extraction and Report Language (although it appears in Perl documentation.), because according to Perl documentation., Perl is NOT an acronym. Many programmers make this misunderstanding.

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).^[13] The musical Chitty Chitty Bang Bang popularised this erroneous etymology.^[13]
• 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.^[13]
• SOS, the international distress signal is chosen solely for its easy recognizability in Morse code(...---...).^[14] The International Wireless Telegraph Convention makes no mention that it stands for "save our ship", "save our souls", or "send out succour".

The Lucky Goldstar group became LG and is now branded as "Life's Good".

Replacement

Some backronyms are back-formed from an initialism or acronym that 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.^[20] IBM is also sometimes known as "I've been meeting" or "It's being mended" and among some junior members of staff as "I Bum Men" which when said quickly approximates the phonetic pronunciation.
• SPAM luncheon meat, whose name is a portmanteau of "SPiced hAM" has been unofficially assigned acronyms such as "Specially Processed Assorted Meat", "Slime Posing As Meat", "Some Parts Are Meat",^[21] "Specially Prepared American Meat", "Scientifically Produced Artificial Meat", "Sedatives, Preservatives, And Meat," "Stuff Posing As Meat," or "Spare Parts After Mutilation". After the word "spam" became associated with unsolicited commercial email (UCE), it became jokingly referred to as "Self-Propelled Automated Mailings" or "Stupid, Pointless, Annoying Messages". In Esperanto the word spamo is used with the same meaning and has been reinterpreted as "SenPete Alsendita Mesaĝo", that is, "message sent to someone without being asked for".
• The .arpa Top-level domain originally stood for "Advanced Research Projects Agency" but as the internet transitioned from a strictly US government project to an independent computer network this TLD was instead officially declared to stand for "Address and Routing Parameter Area".

Apronym

Many backronyms are apronyms, that is, the word itself is relevant to its associated phrase.^[22] The relevance may be either serious or ironic. One example is the term BASE jumping, which was coined to signify a parachute jump from one of the bases building, antenna, span, or earth.^[23]

Most of the examples in the following sections also count as apronyms.

Mnemonic

Backronyms are often 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 (US), Every Good Boy Deserves Fun (US), Even George Bush Drives Fast (US), Every Good Boy Deserves (Favour/Fruit/Fudge/Football/Fun) (UK/Canada/US/AUS) or Every Green Bus Drives Fast (UK) or Empty Garbage Before Dad Flips (US)

to help remember that these notes (E, G, B, D, and F) are "on the lines". Another example, also applied in music, is FACE, referring to the "space" notes F, A, C, E. Another example is Go Down And Eat Breakfast|Banana and Fat Boys Eat All Day for the names of the major keys. G Major has one sharp as its key signature; D Major has two, and so on. The order of Sharps in those keys is also recalled via "Father Charles Goes Down And Ends Battle" or "Fluffy Cats Get Dirty After Every Bath". F Major has one flat as its key signature, B-flat major has two, etc. This also works in reverse for the order of flats: "Battle Ends And Down Goes Charles' Father". In Finland, there is the backronym "Esko Aho Diggaa Golfista, Halonen Ei" (Esko Aho digs golf, Halonen doesn't) to help children remember the strings of a guitar in order (E, A, D, G, H/B, E). In Dutch, the corresponding backronym is "Een Aap Die Geen Bananen Eet" (A monkey that does not eat bananas). US versions include "Elvis Ate Dynamite Good Bye Elvis" and "Every Acid Dealer Gets Busted Eventually".

In North America, geography students learn "HOMES" to remember the names of the Great Lakes (Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie and Superior).^[24]

Another example 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 acronym APGAR was coined in the US as a mnemonic learning aid: Appearance (skin color), Pulse (heart rate), Grimace (reflex irritability), Activity (muscle tone), and Respiration.

n star classification the backronym Oh, Be A Fine Girl/Guy Kiss Me, and a number of variations, are used to remember the order of star classes, from bluest to reddest.

In Sweden, pupils in low-level school learn "Vi ska Äta Ni ska Laga" which literally means "We shall Eat You shall Cook" to remember the names of the rivers that float down the west coast. (Viskan Ätran Nissan Lagan). ^[25]

Anacronym

Some backronyms are replacements of other phrases that 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.^[26]
• 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.^[27]

• SAT in the US 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^[28]. (To add to the confusion, SAT in the UK still stands for Standard Attainment Test, the examination part of National Curriculum assessments carried out at the ages of 7, 11 and 14.)^[29]

• OCLC was named Ohio College Library Center when it was founded in 1967. But in 1981, after it had expanded to include libraries outside Ohio, its name was changed to Online Computer Library Center, Inc.^[30]

• DVDs were originally designed as media for audio-visual data, and as such the abbreviation originally stood for "Digital Video Disc", whether or not the medium could carry any data. As the format inevitably came into common use for other data storage, a different semi-official expansion was created, namely "Digital Versatile Disc". However, "DVD" officially does not stand for anything.^[6]
• SOAP was originally the acronym for Simple Object Access Protocol. An informal vote for a replacement anacronym took place at a W3C XML Working Group meeting. Candidates included Service Oriented Access Protocol and Simple Open Access Protocol, but "SOAP" without definition was officially adopted.^[31] SOAP has also come to refer to a situation that is bizarre and unnecessarily complicated, stemming from the cult classic movie, Snakes on a Plane (SoaP).
• GSM, originally from the French "Groupe Spécial Mobile", became Global System for Mobile Communications when the GSM mobile network became increasingly popular around the world. ^[32]

• PHP, was developed by Rasmus Lerdorf and originally stood for "Personal Home Page", became "PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor", a recursive acronym. ^[33]

False

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

• B.C.E. and C.E., which stand for "Before the Common Era" and "of the Common Era", and correspond to the same reference system as do B.C. and A.D. respectively, were created as a religion-neutral alternative to specify the year. Also, C.E. takes account of chronological errors, that put the birth of Christ in 4 B.C.E., which would technically be year 1 A.D. People familiar with the meanings of B.C./A.D. sometimes mistake the new initialisms as modern translations of the original initialisms, such as in "the year 570 of the Christian Era."^[34]
• R.I.P., an internationally used initialism for the Latin Requiescat in pace ("May he/she rest in peace").^[35] is not, as often stated, an English acronym for "Rest in Peace".
• RPG is a transliteration of РПГ, the Russian abbreviation of реактивный противотанковый гранатомёт (reaktivniy protivotankoviy granatomyot), "rocket anti-tank launcher", now sometimes said to stand for "rocket-propelled grenade" instead.^[36] (RPG is also used for role-playing game and is also the name of a programming language.)
• 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 literally translates to "Respond, if it pleases you" or simply "Please reply."^[37]
• AC/DC does not stand for "Anti-Christ/Devil's Children".^[38] nor for "After Christ, the Devil Comes". It actually stands for the electrical terms, "Alternating Current" and "Direct Current". The founders of the hard rock band, AC/DC, (Angus and Malcolm Young) saw the letters on the back of a sewing machine,^[38] and thought that a reference to electricity suited their energetic style. The name caused some confusion among Americans because AC/DC was a common euphemism for bisexuality.^[39]

Recursive

Some backronyms are also recursive acronyms. Perhaps the most famous of these is GNU, the open source software project, which stands for GNU's Not Unix.