June 02, 2005
New Word: 'Backronym'
I encountered a new, perhaps experimental, word today: Backronym (“a reverse acronym, that is, the words of the expanded term were chosen to fit the letters of the acronym”). I’m not sure I like it.
I do like retronym (“a new word or phrase coined for an old object or concept whose original name has become used for something else or is no longer unique”) though. It’s nice to have a name for phrases like ‘analog clock’ or ‘rotary phone’ or ‘dead tree book’.
Posted by Michael : June 2, 2005 09:24 AM | Readings | TechnoLinks
Slashdot
It!
"I do not think that word means what you think it means."--Fezzik, from The Princess Bride
Actually, looking at the examples in Wikipedia, "backronym" does not mean what I thought it did. Is there a name for instances where the acronym was invented first, then the words were made to fit. The most egregious example is USA PATRIOT, or "Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism" Act.
Posted by: Jim at June 2, 2005 12:12 PM"Politics" ?
Posted by: michael at June 2, 2005 12:20 PMA good 'backronym':
Community Oriented Policing Services = COPS
Posted by: Night Owl at June 2, 2005 03:53 PMThe oldest backronym I can think of doesn't appear on the Wikipedia page: the Jesuit symbol "IHS" has been expanded for centuries as "Iesus Hominum Salvator", but in reality it's just a badly transcribed Iota-eta-sigma (from the Greek Iesous). Probably the most famous, I would guess, is the folk-etymology involving "for unlawful carnal knowledge", which one still hears occasionally. I think Eric Partridge already mentions it in one of his books from the 1940s. My favourite from the Wikipedia list, though, is the following:
H2SO4 - hot hot searing! ouch ouch ouch ouch!
Jim's post is fascinating and there have to be many other examples; it seems to me that our government invents them every time they want political cover. But the first reverse acronym I came across, and the only one which still comes to mind, is FATAH. The word itself means "new beginning" or/and "victory/triumph" in English, but taken in reverse order the letters stand, in Arabic, for "Palestine Liberation Movement." Read from left to right, as we do in English, it still reads the same, the F the capital letter of Palestine, the T of Liberation and the H of Movement.
Convoluted, yes, and I doubt many reverse acronyms are so nifty.
Posted by: Khuloud at June 2, 2005 07:01 PMAnd then there is RICO (the "Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act"), which is a truly great acronym, but a terrible title.
Posted by: Vadranor at June 2, 2005 11:33 PMRico would make a good mob nickname.
Posted by: Joe at June 4, 2005 11:24 PM