Word Play: Back to the acronym

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Friday, June 23rd. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Nick Eicher.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: And I’m Myrna Brown. Up next, Commentator George Grant with this month’s Word Play.

GEORGE GRANT, COMMENTATOR: You probably know that an acronym is an abbreviation, usually created by combining the first letters of words in a title, a name, or a phrase. These days acronyms abound, particularly in email, text messaging, and social media: LOL is an acronym for “laughing out loud.” IMHO is short for “in my humble opinion.” IDK is an abbreviation for “I don’t know.”

What may not be quite as familiar are backronyms. The term is a portmanteau, splicing together the words backward and acronym. It was first coined in 1983, part of a monthly neologism contest in the Washington Post and connotes a reverse acronym. The difference between an acronym and a backronym is timing: which came first, the words or the phrase? The official name for the AMBER alerts is “America’s Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response.” But that name is actually a backronym, created to memorialize Amber Hagerman, a Texas girl whose 1996 abduction led to the program’s formation.

NASA created a backronym when it named an orbital exercise machine–designed for the International Space Station–the “Combined Operational Load-Bearing External Resistance Treadmill,” or COLBERT, as a humorous tribute to Stephen Colbert.

The Federal Government often employs backronyms for its many programs and policies. ZIP code is a backronym for the Post Office “Zone Improvement Plan.” The USA PATRIOT Act is a backronym for “Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism.”

While the provenance of these backronyms can be somewhat reliably verified, many others are more than a little dubious. RAP has been rumored to be a backronym for “rhythm and poetry.” Probably not. It is commonly claimed that the distress signal, SOS, is a backronym for “save our ship” or “save our souls.” That too is doubtful.

The concept of a conspiratorial CABAL is sometimes claimed to be a backronym formed from the names of five ministers of Britain’s King Charles II: Clifford, Arlington, Buckingham, Ashley, and Lauderdale. The men were the catalysts for a host of nefarious intrigues including starting a war with Holland in 1672, and entering into a corrupt alliance with France in 1673. It’s a great story, but it’s not true. The word “cabal” was in common English usage for up to a century prior to these political shenanigans.

It is yet another reminder of the quip often attributed to Mark Twain, we ought to “Never let the truth get in the way of a good story.” Or a good backronym.

I’m George Grant.

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