Day: June 7, 2024

VOCABULARY: BACKRONYM — an after the fact phrase for an acronym

Published on by reinkefjLeave a comment

I discovered the Word of the Day from Dictionary.com, and I wanted to share it with you. https://www.dictionary.com/e/word-of-the-day/backronym-2024-05-31/

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an existing word turned into an acronym by creating an apt phrase whose initial letters match the word, as to help remember it or offer a theory of its origin.

  •     First recorded in 1980–85.
  •     Formed from the word back “toward the rear” and (ac)ronym, “a word formed from the initial letters or groups of letters of words in a set phrase and pronounced as a separate word.”

EXAMPLES OF BACKRONYM

  •     Some people believe the word news stands for “notable events, weather, and sports,” but that’s not accurate; it’s a backronym.
  •     My neighbor insists that SOS means “Save Our Ship” and wouldn’t believe that people made up that backronym years after SOS was first used.

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So how did “news” originate. Just “new items”?

I learned something from this.

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