Saw the acronym POSSLQ in this thread, and was confused because it seemed to describe a heterosexual relationship…
You see, I thought the acronym in question meant Person of Same Sex Lesbian Queer. I have no idea where or when I assumed that, just kind of picked it up when I heard it mentioned in a sitcom or something years ago (when I likely wasn’t paying close attention to the context).
Another one is sort of a double meaning backronym that has two slightly different origins. AOR music. I always assumed that it meant Album Oriented Radio, radio format in the US in the 70’s which often played “deep” non-single cuts.
Fast forward 30 years, and I’d see it used in contexts which had nothing to do with North American radio formats per se. Was confused until a quick Googling revealed it had somehowemphasized text morphed into Adult Oriented Rock. To make it worse, the two meanings overlap a bit, in that such bands were often played on album-oriented stations back in the day, tho many which were would not qualify as adult-oriented rock per se now.
The first ten dozen times or so that saw “LOL” online, I thought it meant “lots of luck”, which by sheer coincidence made sense in the first couple dozen contexts where I saw it.
And then there’s the old joke about the person who thought it meant ‘lots of love’ and texted to a friend whose spouse died “so sorry for your loss-- LOL”.
“SJW” originally (?) Meant Single Jewish Woman, not Social Justice Warrior like it does now (and the latter acquired a negative connotation at some point. So I’d see SJW in a political (vs. romantic) context, and get a bit nonplussed.
During the 1970’s oil crisis, I asked my Mom what OPEC stood for. She confidently answered “Oil Producing Economic Community.” Even long after I Iearned the correct meaning (“Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries”), I still think of my Mom’s false meaning first.
FTW used to mean Fuck The World! A term of frustration and anger. Then it changed to mean For The Win, the complete opposite, a term of joy and anticipation. It confused me for a very long time.
I’d probably been posting here for at least ten or fifteen years before I figured out that “ETA” meant “edited to add”. Before that I’d only ever known it as “estimated time of arrival”.
I always thought OPEC meant Oil Producing and Exporting Countries. I still tend to go to that first, and have to remind myself of what it really stands for (on those very rare occasions where I need to use the full name).
Way back in the day when I first heard about RPG gaming, I thought it referred to shoot-em-up games using Rocket Propelled Grenades. And some RPGs do use RPGs.