Tuesday, April 15, 2008

backronym

A backronym (or bacronym or also retronym) is a phrase that is constructed "after the fact" from a previously existing word or abbreviation, the abbreviation being an initialism or an acronym.

Wikipedia

Stumbled across the word while reading about MXML. Other bacronyms of interest (from the same Wikipedia entry):

Golf: Gentlemen Only, Ladies Forbidden
ISO: International Standards Organization (coulda fooled me)
Wiki: What I Know Is (when in fact Wiki was originally derived from the Hawai'ian word for "Quick")

And, interestingly, Perl, which: "does NOT stand for Practical Extraction and Report Language (although it appears in Perl documentation.), because according to Perl documentation., Perl is NOT an acronym."

2 comments:

bobcat rock said...

s'wonderful to see "Hawai'ian" spelt with the apostrophe. true, heartwarming & rare.

if i was wearing a cap, i'd doff it to your wise & gentle wordage.

much fandomery,

bcr

Anonymous said...

ISO. Yes, nothing like non standard standards, eh?

We have those in education too. All part of the joy of NCLB.

Related Posts with Thumbnails