Acronyms are brief words formed from the initial letter of a bag of other closely associated words. The word “acronym” was coined in the forties, blending the Greek words “akron” (top, tip) and “onoma” (name). So the first letter of each of a collective of words is taken as the touchstone letter to create a new word for simplicity and easy recall. It’s a twentieth-century habit spurred on by rapid scientific advances.
The fifties diving term, scuba – short for “self-contained underwater breathing apparatus” is a good example. Laser, the sixties term for “light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation” is another. Where the shortened neologism derived cannot be pronounced as a word, such as KFC or HTML, the acronym is described as an abbreviation exhibiting initialism.
The general rule, for editors, regarding the use of abbreviations and acronyms, is to capitalise all the letters in cases of initialism, but only the first letter if it’s a true acronym that creates a pronounceable word. So it’s HIV (for Human Immuno-deficiency Virus) but Aids, for “acquired immune deficiency syndrome” – although the latter is moot with the WHO (World Health Organisation) which prefers AIDS.
Fastidious editors will always ensure that before an acronym is used in an article, it gets introduced by utilising the full reference first, followed by the acronym or abbreviation in brackets, e.g. International Labour Organisation (ILO). Thereafter, the acronym may be bandied about independently.
Interestingly, Adidas is named after company founder Adolf “Adi” Dassler and is not a contraction of “All day I dream about sports”! The word “posh” became such a well-used term that folk etymology also (incorrectly) ascribed its origin to wealthy cruise ship travellers preferring “Port Out, Starboard Home” bookings.
It’s bliss when the acronym crafter hits upon a word that mirrors the activity. So SPCA, now well-entrenched in our collective psyche, might have a nice ring to it, but is rather joyless, while DARG (Domestic Animal Rescue Group), delights doubly.
Texting has been and is responsible for unleashing a tsunami of abbreviations upon us, IMHO (in my humble opinion). It has even spawned pseudo-acronyms, that consist of a sequence of characters which – when pronounced as intended – invoke other, longer words, but with less typing, e.g. GR8 (Great!). What’s your favourite acronym? OTT? WTF?!
