An acronym from last weeks podcast, not quite
12 Jul 2005
Today we have a word that describes words- acronym. An acronym, like most words that end in -nym or -onym, describes a word or a name. An acronym is a word formed by the initial letters of a longer term. My favorite example is laser. Laser stands for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation.
It is important to contrast an acronym with an abbreviation. An abbreviation, like IBM or ADR is not pronounced as a word. Each individual letter is pronounced.
Some good acronyms include Radar, Nato and Opec.
Acronym comes from the combination of the Greek akron and onoma. Akron means tip or end and onoma mean name.
A interesting modern acronym phenomenon is the recursive acronym. In a recursive acronym one of the words that makes up the initials is the acronym. Gnu, the popular linux flavor is a well known example. Gnu stands for Gnu is Not Unix. I suspect the most recognized recursive acronym is VISA. What Visa is a recursive acronym? I know. I was surprised too. Visa is the VISA International Service Association.
You can look up most acronyms at:
Both are great sites for research and browsing the amazing variety of acronyms and abbreviations.