Social:Backronym

From HandWiki
Short description: Acronym invented to fit an existing word
Not to be confused with retronym.
Humorous example of a backronym featuring Stephen Colbert

A backronym is an acronym formed from an already existing word by expanding its letters into the words of a phrase. Backronyms may be invented with either serious or humorous intent, or they may be a type of false etymology or folk etymology. The word is a portmanteau of back and acronym.[1]

A normal acronym is a word derived from the initial letters of the words of a phrase,[2] such as radar from "radio detection and ranging".[3] 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."[1] Many fictional espionage organizations are backronyms, such as SPECTRE (special executive for counterintelligence, terrorism, revenge and extortion) from the James Bond franchise.

For example, the Amber Alert missing-child program was named after Amber Hagerman, a nine-year-old girl who was abducted and murdered in 1996.[4] Officials later publicized the backronym "America's Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response".[5]

Examples

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. 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] Another example is the American Contract Bridge League's tools to address cheating in online bridge games. EDGAR was originally named for the late Edgar Kaplan, whose many contributions to the game included groundbreaking efforts to reduce illegal partnership communication. The new EDGAR tools expected to debut in early 2024 have been launched with the backronym Everyone Deserves a Game Above Reproach.[7]

Many United States Congress bills have backronyms as their names; examples include the American CARES Act (Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act) of 2020,[8][9] the USA PATRIOT Act (Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act) of 2001, and the DREAM Act (Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act).[10] In the 113th Congress (2013) there were over 240 bills with such names.[11]

As false etymologies

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 rare in the English language before the 1930s, and most etymologies of common words or phrases that suggest origin from an acronym are false.[12]

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 19th-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 voyages west.[13] 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 ("white robes"), a term for wealthy people.[14]

Another example is the word chav, which is a derogatory term for a working-class youth. This word is probably of Angloromani origin[15] but commonly believed to be a backronym of "Council-Housed and Violent"[16]

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.[17]

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 Sport";[18]Template:Pages? The word Wiki, said to stand for "What I Know Is",[19] but in fact derived from the Hawaiian phrase wiki-wiki meaning "fast";[20] 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).[21] The distress call "Pan-Pan" is commonly stated to mean "Possible Assistance Needed", whereas in fact it is derived from the French word panne, meaning breakdown. [22]

See also


References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Backronym – Definition of backronym in English by Oxford Dictionaries". https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/backronym. 
  2. ↑ "Acronym". Dictionary.com. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/acronym. 
  3. ↑ NASA. "RADAR means: Radio Detection and Ranging". Nasa Explores. http://www.nasaexplores.com/show_k4_teacher_st.php?id=030703122033. 
  4. ↑ "AmberAdvocate.org: AMBER Alert history". https://www.amberadvocate.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/AMBER-Alert-History.pdf. 
  5. ↑ "AMBER Alert – America's Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response". Amberalert.gov. 2007-11-01. http://www.amberalert.gov/. 
  6. ↑ "The Virginia Apgar Papers - Obstetric Anesthesia and a Scorecard for Newborns, 1949-1958". U.S. National Library of Medicine, NIH. http://profiles.nlm.nih.gov/CP/Views/Exhibit/narrative/obstetric.html. 
  7. ↑ Official, ACBL (8 November 2023). "ACBL Battles Online Cheating with EDGAR". https://bridgewinners.com/article/view/acbl-battles-online-cheating-with-edgar/. 
  8. ↑ "The CARES Act Works for All Americans". https://home.treasury.gov/policy-issues/cares. 
  9. ↑ McConnell, Mitch (2020-06-03). "S.3548 - 116th Congress (2019-2020): CARES Act". https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/senate-bill/3548. 
  10. ↑ "The art of the 'backronym'". July 28, 2020. https://www.rollcall.com/2020/07/28/mitch-mcconnell-coronavirus-backronym/. 
  11. ↑ Bump, Philip (August 2, 2013). "All the Silly Legislative Acronyms Congress Came Up with This Year". https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/08/congress-acronyms-reins/312565/. 
  12. ↑ Sheidlower, Jesse (2009). The F-Word. New York: Oxford University Press US. ISBN 978-0-19-539311-8. 
  13. ↑ Quinion, Michael (2005). Port Out, Starboard Home: And Other Language Myths. Penguin. ISBN 0-14-101223-4. ; published in the US as Quinion, Michael (2006). Ballyhoo, Buckaroo, and Spuds. HarperCollins. ISBN 0-06-085153-8. https://archive.org/details/ballyhoobuckaroo0000quin_z4e2. 
  14. ↑ "posh, adj. and n.". posh, adj. and n.. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2009. 
  15. ↑ "chav". chav. The Wikimedia Foundation. 2023. 
  16. ↑ Bennett, Joe (30 April 2012). "Everything you ever wanted to know about the word 'chav'". Ideas Lab Predictor Podcast, University of Birmingham. https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/accessibility/transcripts/dr-joe-bennett-chav.aspx. 
  17. ↑ Rohrer, Finlo (13 June 2008). "Save our SOS". BBC News Magazine. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/7444184.stm. 
  18. ↑ Brunner, Conrad (2004). All Day I Dream About Sport: The Story of the Adidas Brand. Great Brand Stories. London: Cyan. ISBN 1-904879-12-8. 
  19. ↑ "The wiki principle". The Economist. 2006-04-20. http://www.economist.com/surveys/displaystory.cfm?story_id=6794228. 
  20. ↑ "wiki". wiki. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/wiki. Retrieved 2006-11-15. 
  21. ↑ "The History of Yahoo! - How It All Started...". Yahoo.com. 2001. http://docs.yahoo.com/info/misc/history.html. 
  22. ↑ Green, Eli (18 January 2023). "Qantas flight QF144 lands safely at Sydney Airport after midair mayday call". news.com.au. https://www.news.com.au/travel/travel-updates/incidents/fears-for-flight-after-mayday-called-for-qantas-flight-auckland-to-sydney/news-story/82bab4c70582ba4f7e7af0a8058fcbc2. 



Retrieved from "https://handwiki.org/wiki/index.php?title=Social:Backronym&oldid=3302777"