Backronym

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''.

A normal acronym is a word derived from the initial letter(s) of the words of a phrase,

such as ''radar'' from "radio detection and ranging".

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". 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. Officials later publicized the backronym "America's Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response".

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. Another example is the American Contract Bridge League's tools to address cheating in online bridge games. EDGAR was originally named for 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".

Many United States Congress bills have backronyms as their names; examples include the USA PATRIOT Act (Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act) of 2001, the CHIPS and Science Act (Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors), and the DREAM Act (Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act).

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.

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.
; published in the US as
The word's actual etymology is unknown, but more likely related to Romani ('half-penny') or to Urdu (borrowed from Persian) ('white robes'), a term for wealthy people.

Another example is the word ''chav'', which is a derogatory term for a working-class youth. This word is probably of Romani origin but commonly believed to be a backronym of "council-housed and violent".

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, and three dots, sent without any pauses between characters.

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".

The word ''Wiki'' is said to stand for "what I know is", but in fact is derived from the Hawaiian phrase ''wiki-wiki'' meaning 'fast'.

Yahoo!, sometimes claimed to mean "yet another hierarchical officious oracle", in fact was chosen because Yahoo's founders liked the word's meaning of "rude, unsophisticated, uncouth" (taken from Jonathan Swift's book ''Gulliver's Travels''). The distress call "pan-pan" is commonly stated to mean "possible assistance needed", whereas it is in fact derived from the French word ''panne'', meaning 'breakdown'.

See also

* Acronymization
* Acrostic
* Mnemonic
* Pseudo-acronym
* Recursive acronym
* Retronym
* Satiric misspelling

References

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Etymology
Folklore
Neologisms
Types of words
1980s neologisms