# Cryptic abbreviations we all know **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 22, 2000, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cryptic-abbreviations-we-all-know/26483 "2000-07-22T21:00:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2000, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cryptic-abbreviations-we-all-know/26483/1 "2000-07-22T21:00:49Z")
About 1959 I started seeing gumball machines which dispensed, along with gumballs, buttons with the initials, “IFIC.” What did this mean? “I find, I chew?” (ugh!) More recently, a brand of root beer named “IBC” has appeared. What do _these_ initials stand for? ---
**Author:** ![sailor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2000, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cryptic-abbreviations-we-all-know/26483/2 "2000-07-22T22:17:33Z")
{nitpicking mode} If we all know them they are not cryptic {/nitpicking mode} ---
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2000, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cryptic-abbreviations-we-all-know/26483/3 "2000-07-22T22:19:23Z")
Sorry, Sailor. I mean: We are familiar with the abbreviations–butr that doesn’t mean we know what they stand for. Understand? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Kat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b19c9b/32.png) [@Kat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kat)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2000, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cryptic-abbreviations-we-all-know/26483/4 "2000-07-22T23:23:56Z")
IBC? My father contends that it stands for “I Be Crabby”. According to [these guys](http://www.foodsalessystems.com/ibc.htm), it stands for Independent Breweries Company. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2000, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cryptic-abbreviations-we-all-know/26483/5 "2000-07-22T23:41:17Z")
All sorts of them: BMW (Bavarian Machine Works, or the German equivalent) BVDs (Bradley, Voorhees, and Day) TWAIN (Technology Without An Interesting Name) DOS (Disk Operating System) Modem (MOdulator/DEModulator) U.N.C.L.E. (As in “The Man From”: United Network Command for Law Enforcement) THRUSH (As in The Man From U.N.C.L.E. – Technological Hierarcy for the Removal of Undesirables and the Subjugation of Humanity – a name that made it clear where they stood, at least 🙂 ) Smersh (in James Bond. It comes from the Russian phrase “Death to Spies”) CCCP – From the first letters of the Russian words for “Union of Soviet Socialist Republics”. The word for “Union” is “Soyuz”; the rest of the words are similar to the English. The Russian “S” sound is represented by “C”; the “R” sound is represented by “P”. ---
**Author:** ![yojimbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yojimbo/32/232_2.png) [@yojimbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yojimbo)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2000, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cryptic-abbreviations-we-all-know/26483/6 "2000-07-22T23:56:07Z")
A lot of people don’t know what IBM stands for. Also KGB and url. ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2000, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cryptic-abbreviations-we-all-know/26483/7 "2000-07-23T00:21:40Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by yojimbo \* > \*\*A lot of people don’t know what IBM stands for. > > Also KGB and url. \*\* KGB = Killer Green Bud. ---
**Author:** ![Quadzilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/a4c791/32.png) [@Quadzilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quadzilla)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2000, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cryptic-abbreviations-we-all-know/26483/8 "2000-07-23T01:01:06Z")
Yojimbo - IBM is International Business Machines, I think. URL is universal resource (?) locator How about NCR? ---
**Author:** ![tbea925](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dc4da7/32.png) [@tbea925](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tbea925)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2000, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cryptic-abbreviations-we-all-know/26483/9 "2000-07-23T01:09:49Z")
National Cash Register, back from their days when the made, well, cash registers. ---
**Author:** ![NickyLarson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b2d939/32.png) [@NickyLarson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NickyLarson)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2000, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cryptic-abbreviations-we-all-know/26483/10 "2000-07-23T01:28:15Z")
**N** o **C** arbon **R** equired. ---
**Author:** ![sk8rixtx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/858c86/32.png) [@sk8rixtx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sk8rixtx)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2000, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cryptic-abbreviations-we-all-know/26483/11 "2000-07-23T01:42:17Z")
Aright guys and gals, howzabout: DVDA. \*Everyone gives out a simultaneous EEEEEEWWWWWWWWWW!!! ---
**Author:** ![rs0522](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a9a28c/32.png) [@rs0522](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rs0522)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2000, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cryptic-abbreviations-we-all-know/26483/12 "2000-07-23T03:13:35Z")
In case anyone cares, KGB stands for Komitet Gosudarstvenoi Bezopasnosti, or Committee for State Security in Russian. Someone mentioned Smersh. How about SPECTRE, the Special Executive for Espionage, Counter-terrorism, Revenge, and Extortion? Always wanted to sit on the committee that came up with their company mission statement. And UNCLE stood for United Network Command for Law AND Enforcement. And what is DVDA? ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2000, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cryptic-abbreviations-we-all-know/26483/13 "2000-07-23T03:20:35Z")
My favorite has always been GNU, which stands for GNU’s Not Unix. ---
**Author:** ![capacitor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e47774/32.png) [@capacitor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/capacitor)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2000, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cryptic-abbreviations-we-all-know/26483/14 "2000-07-23T03:58:17Z")
DVD=Digital Video Drive ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2000, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cryptic-abbreviations-we-all-know/26483/15 "2000-07-23T04:37:27Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by RealityChuck \* > \*\* > > BMW (Bavarian Machine Works, or the German equivalent) > \*\* Bavarian **Motor** Works: Bayerische Motoren Werke. ---
**Author:** ![lurkernomore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d6d6ee/32.png) [@lurkernomore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lurkernomore)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2000, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cryptic-abbreviations-we-all-know/26483/16 "2000-07-23T15:29:15Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by capacitor \* > \*\*DVD=Digital Video Drive \*\* not drive - disk Anchordesk reports the v as either video or versatile. ---
**Author:** ![tshirts](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/839c29/32.png) [@tshirts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tshirts)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2000, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cryptic-abbreviations-we-all-know/26483/17 "2000-07-23T16:15:06Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by NickyLarson \ ***N** o **C** arbon **R** equired. Did you know NCR (the official new short name that replaced Nation Cash Register) actually owns and produces NCR paper? (I used to work with them in Escondio, CA.) ---
**Author:** ![tshirts](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/839c29/32.png) [@tshirts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tshirts)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2000, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cryptic-abbreviations-we-all-know/26483/18 "2000-07-23T16:16:20Z")
That was National Cash Register, of course. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2000, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cryptic-abbreviations-we-all-know/26483/19 "2000-07-23T16:26:05Z")
> [@](#): > > My favorite has always been GNU, which stands for GNU’s Not Unix. That made me roll my eyes in the same style as the mail reader PINE (PINE is not ELM). ---
**Author:** ![stuyguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ec9cab/32.png) [@stuyguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stuyguy)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2000, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cryptic-abbreviations-we-all-know/26483/20 "2000-07-23T16:39:52Z")
Here’s one for New Yorkers. (It may apply elsewhere, but I don’t know). Many an old timer will tell you they went to “P.S. [three-digit-number-goes-here],” like my dad who went to P.S. 176. Ask them what the P.S. stood for and 99.9999999% will say “Public School.” And, of course, they’d be wrong; it stood for “PRIMARY School.” This may not apply anymore as the Board of Ed seems to have adopted the term “elementary school” (along with “middle school” instead of “intermediary school” [I.S.].). Ahhh. another tradition bites the dust. * * * tshirts: Yes, I DID know that. Did you know that they were called “the Cash” in the same way IBM is called Big Blue? Or that the man’s name Cash originated by couples naming their kids after that big, benevolent Dayton company? Also, do you know whay cash registers ring (or at least used to)? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cryptic-abbreviations-we-all-know/26483.md?page=2)