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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