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Backronym

A backronym (or bacronym) is a phrase that is constructed "after the fact" from a previously existing word or abbreviation, the abbreviation being an initialism or an acronym. Backronyms may be invented with humorous intent, or may be a type of false or folk etymology. The word is a portmanteau term combining back and acronym, coined in 1983 and documented from 1994:

The arrival of coeducation at St. Paul's in 1971 inspired the verb to scope (a foreclipping and conversion of "telescope") and the derived noun scoper, "one who appreciatively ogles the opposite sex." From this process has arisen an unofficial organization named SCOPERS, a reverse acronym, or bacronym, for "Students Concentrating On the Palatable Extremities of the Reciprocal Sex."

-Richard Lederer, Adventures of a Verbivore, 1994

Backronym versus acronym

An "acronym" is a pronounceable word derived from the initial letters of a phrase: For example, the word radar comes from "Radio Detection and Ranging". 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 begin each word of a 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, 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) and SOS (a representation of the emergency signal used in Morse code).

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". Since its application to consumer generated media, some have suggested that "wiki" means "What I Know Is".

Adidas has been written about in All Day I Dream About Sports: The Story of the Adidas Brand. Adidas comes from the name of the shoe company's founder, Adolf Dassler, whose nickname was Adi (Dassler). It has also been alternatively backronymed as "All Day I Dream About Sex", a backronym popularized by the band Korn, who recorded a song of the same name for their second album Life Is Peachy. In Spanish, a popular and sarcastic backronym for Adidas is "Asociación De Idiotas Dispuestos A Superarse" (which could be translated as "Association Of Idiots Willing To Improve").

Kiss is simply the name of the band, but is often referred to as "Knights In Satan's Service".

Sometimes the backronym is so commonly heard, that it is generally but incorrectly believed to have been used in the formation of the word, and amounts to a folk etymology. Examples of these include:

Perl does not stand for Practical Extraction and Report Language (although it appears in Perl documentation. .), because according to , Perl is not an acronym. Many programmers make this misunderstanding.

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). The musical Chitty Chitty Bang Bang popularised this erroneous etymology.

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 called Kolven.

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.

Apronym

Many backronyms are apronyms, that is, the word itself is relevant to its associated phrase. 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.

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), Elvis' Guitar Broke Down Friday (US), Evil Giant Brain Devours France (US), Even George Bush Drives Fast (US), Every Good Boy Deserves (Flogging/Favour/Fruit/Fudge/Football/Fun) (UK/Canada/US/AUS) or Every Green Bus Drives Fast (UK) or Empty Garbage Before Dad Flips/Freaks (US) Elephants Got Big Dirty Feet (US)

to help remember that these notes (E, G, B, D, and F) are "on the lines" of the treble clef staff. Another example, also applied in the treble clef, is FACE, referring to the "space" notes F, A, C, E. An example used for memorizing the notes on the lines of the bass clef staff (G, B, D, F, and A) is Good Burritos Don't Fall Apart (US). 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" or even "Father Calls George Donkey Always Every Birthday". 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 and UK versions include "Eddie Ate Dynamite Good Bye Eddie", "Every Acid Dealer Gets Busted Eventually", "Eat A Darn Good Breakfast Everyday", "Elephants And Donkeys Grow Big Ears" and "Every Alternate Day Grass Brings Energy".

For Color Coding on resistors the Mnemonic is "Bad Booze Rots Our Young Guts But Vodka Goes Well" or "Bad Boys Rape Our Young Girls But Violet Goes Willingly" (Black - 0, Brown - 1, Red -2, Orange - 3, Yellow - 4, Green - 5, Blue - 6, Violet - 7, Grey - 8, White - 9). Note that the vowel following the B in each of the three B words is the same as the vowel in the color it represents.

In North America, geography students learn "HOMES" to remember the names of the Great Lakes (Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie and Superior). To remember them in geographic order the mnemonic "Super Man Helps Every One" is used.

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.

Some children learn the colours of the rainbow using the mnemonic "Rip Out Your Guts Before I Vomit" (Red, Orange. Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet). Another example of this is "Richard of York Gave Battle In Vain", or elsewise, "ROY G. BIV".

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

The street names of Seattle's city center are paired by names beginning with the same letter. The phrase "Jesus Christ made Seattle under protest" helps to recall the order of the streets: Jefferson, James, Cherry, Columbia, Marion, Madison, Spring, Seneca, University, Union, Pike, and Pine.

One to remember the order of the planets is: My Very Easy Method Just Speeds Up Naming Planets.

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 flow down the west coast. (Viskan Ätran Nissan Lagan).

A Rat In The House May Eat The Ice Cream (or variations thereof) is a popular backronym used among younger school children as a way to help them remember the spelling of the word "arithmetic.

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,

SADD began as "Students Against Driving Drunk" in 1981, but was changed to its present name of "Students Against Destructive Decisions" in 1997 after requests from students themselves to expand the organization's mission.

ESV, originally, in 1970, Experimental Safety Vehicle. Since 1991, Enhanced Safety of Vehicles.

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.

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. (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.)

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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

WLU was originally Waterloo Lutheran University in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. But when the institution became a public University, the name was changed to Wilfrid Laurier University, retaining the same initials.

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. People familiar with the meanings of B.C./A.D. prefer to regard the new initialisms as modern translations of the original initialisms: "Before the Christian Era" and "Christian Era".

R.I.P., an internationally used initialism for the Latin Requiescat in pace ("May he/she rest in peace"). 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. (RPG is also used for role-playing game, in poker culture refers to the usenet group rec.gambling.poker and is the name of a programming language originally called "Report Program Generator" sometime referred to by the backronym "Right Program Guide".)

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."

AC/DC does not stand for "Anti-Christ/Devil's Children". 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, 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.

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.

Backronyms and the 12 steps

Alcoholics Anonymous and other 12 step programs have a verbal culture that makes extensive use of backronyms.. They're used as teaching tools, similar to slogans like "one day at a time," or "Let go, let God," but often have an ironic edge. GOD = Good Orderly Direction Halt = Hungry Angry Lonely or Tired Fear = False Evidence Appearing Real / Forgetting everything is all right / Fuck Everything And Run / Face Everything And Recover Slip = Sobriety Losing Its Priority Denial = Don't Even Notice I Am Lying