Backronym
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A backronym, or bacronym, is a constructed phrase that purports to be the source of a
word that is an acronym. Backronyms may be invented with either serious or humorous
intent, or they may be a type of false etymology or folk etymology.
An acronym is a word derived from the initial letters of the words of a phrase: [1] For
example, the word radar comes from "radio detection and ranging". [2]
By contrast, a backronym is "an acronym deliberately formed from a phrase whose
initial letters spell out a particular word or words, either to create a memorable name or
as a fanciful explanation of a word's origin." [3]
For example, the United States Department of Justice's Amber Alert program was
named after Amber Hagerman, a 9-year-old abducted and murdered in 1996;[4] but
officials later publicized the backronym "America's Missing: Broadcast Emergency
Response".[5]
The word is a blend of back and acronym.[3]
Contents
1Examples
o 1.1As false etymologies
2See also
3References
4External links
Examples[edit]
An example of a backronym as a mnemonic is the Apgar score, used to assess the
health of newborn babies. The rating system was devised by and named after Virginia
Apgar, but ten years after the initial publication, the backronym APGAR was coined in
the US as a mnemonic learning aid: Appearance, Pulse, Grimace, Activity and
Respiration.[6]
There has been a trend among American politicians to devise names for Political Action
Committees and laws that form desired acronyms. For example, the official title of
the USA PATRIOT Act, a 2001 Act of Congress, is "Uniting and Strengthening America
by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism (USA
PATRIOT) Act of 2001".[7]
As false etymologies[edit]
Sometimes a backronym is reputed to have been used in the formation of the original
word, and amounts to a false etymology or an urban legend. Acronyms were very rare
in the English language prior to the 1930s, and most etymologies of common words or
phrases that suggest origin from an acronym are false. [8]
Examples include posh, an adjective describing stylish items or members of the upper
class. A popular story derives the word as an acronym from "port out, starboard home",
referring to nineteenth century first-class cabins on ocean liners, which were shaded
from the sun on outbound voyages east (e.g. from Britain to India) and homeward
heading voyages west.[9] The word's actual etymology is unknown, but more likely
related to Romani påš xåra ("half-penny") or to Urdu (borrowed from Persian) safed-
pōśh (one who wears "white robes"), a derogatory term for wealthy people. [10] Similarly,
the distress signal SOS is often believed to be an abbreviation for "Save Our Ship" or
"Save Our Souls" but was chosen because it has a simple and unmistakable Morse
code representation – three dots, three dashes, three dots, sent without any pauses
between characters.[11]
More recent examples include the brand name Adidas, named after company
founder Adolf "Adi" Dassler but falsely believed to be an acronym for "All Day I Dream
About Sports";[12] Wiki, said to stand for "What I Know Is",[13] but in fact derived from
the Hawaiian phrase wiki-wiki meaning "fast";[14] or Yahoo!, sometimes claimed to mean
"Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle", but in fact chosen because Yahoo's
founders liked the word's meaning of "rude, unsophisticated, uncouth" (taken
from Jonathan Swift's book Gulliver's Travels).[15]
See also[edit]
Acronymization
Acrostic
Mnemonic
Pseudo-acronym
Recursive acronym
Retronym
Satiric misspelling
References
