# I hate backronyms and folk etymologies. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 26, 2014, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-backronyms-and-folk-etymologies/694110 "2014-07-26T17:54:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2014, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-backronyms-and-folk-etymologies/694110/61 "2014-07-29T02:03:06Z")
> [@The\_Great\_Unwashed](#): > > Want to send me into an apoplectic, frothing at the mouth rage? Just tell me that “freezing the balls of a brass monkey” is derived from blah fucking blah cannonballs fucking blah… > > Death cannot come quickly enough for some people. Those people are known as CANOE = Conspiracy to Attribute Nautical Origin to Everything. No I didn’t make that bacronym up; some wag on another message board did. > [@RealityChuck](#): > > And other than two possible exceptions (“OK” and “hep”), no word used prior to World War II was based on an acronym. “AWOL” may belong in that list. It dates from at least WWI, but may go back further. But it falls into a grey area between actual words and acronyms… ---
**Author:** ![LawMonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d6d6ee/32.png) [@LawMonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LawMonkey)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2014, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-backronyms-and-folk-etymologies/694110/62 "2014-07-29T02:35:13Z")
> [@dtilque](#): > > Those people are known as CANOE = Conspiracy to Attribute Nautical Origin to Everything. No I didn’t make that bacronym up; some wag on another message board did. I wonder how they manage w/ my other favorite cold-related idioms. Witches and their mammaries are in short supply at sea, and you really don’t need anyone trying to dig a well either. ---
**Author:** ![Ale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@Ale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ale)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2014, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-backronyms-and-folk-etymologies/694110/63 "2014-07-29T03:02:33Z")
> [@LawMonkey](#): > > … > > > [@jtur88](#): > > > > Well, that actually makes a great deal more sense than trying to associate it in some way with the fundamental principles of Patriotism. > > > > One of my favs from earlier eras was BOAC – Bastards Overseas Avoiding Conscription – since people employed by crown corporations were exempt from military service. > > This, on the other hand, sounds like a perfectly legitimate 20th century military acronym coinage, like America’s good ol’ ‘fubar’ (fucked up beyond all recognition/repair) and ‘snafu’ (situation normal, all fucked up). BOAC’s not a pre-existing English word that I’m aware of, so it’s not like anyone built a bullshit acronym out of it after the fact. Now, if it had been, say, “BOAS”, with “service” as the last word, it’d be different. BOAC was the British Overseas Airways Corporation, so not like FUBAR or SNAFU. NASA, and other space agencies are other culprits, things like [MESSENGER](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MESSENGER) **MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging** :smack: Just calling it Messenger, like Voyager, or Pioneer, doesn’t cut it, apparently, being an actual rocket scientist is not enough and they have to come up with “clever” names to score some extra points. ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2014, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-backronyms-and-folk-etymologies/694110/64 "2014-07-29T03:06:48Z")
> [@Ale](#): > > \<\< snip \>\>, so not like FUBAR or SNAFU. Add to these the wonderful FAFFH. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2014, 7:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-backronyms-and-folk-etymologies/694110/65 "2014-07-29T07:42:03Z")
> [@LawMonkey](#): > > I wonder how they manage w/ my other favorite cold-related idioms. Witches and their mammaries are in short supply at sea, and you really don’t need anyone trying to dig a well either. Don’t take the bacronym literally. It’s just that there’s several bogus nautical etymologies out there, including of course, one for “the whole nine yrads”. I can’t remember off-hand what the others are. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2014, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-backronyms-and-folk-etymologies/694110/66 "2014-07-29T13:23:10Z")
I thought “pogue”, originally meaning “faggot”, now stands for Person Of Greater Use Elsewhere. Airlines? Alitalia - Always Late In Takeoff, Always Late In Arrival. ---
**Author:** ![Clark\_K](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c77e96/32.png) [@Clark\_K](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clark_K)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2014, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-backronyms-and-folk-etymologies/694110/67 "2014-07-29T21:46:17Z")
An earnest young man once insisted to me that the name “Tony” originated at Ellis Island from all the immigrants showing up with notes saying “To NY” pinned to their lapels. The young man’s name was Tony, by the way. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Great\_Unwashed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_great_unwashed/32/4791_2.png) [@The\_Great\_Unwashed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Great_Unwashed)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2014, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-backronyms-and-folk-etymologies/694110/68 "2014-07-29T23:11:21Z")
Bug-eyed Useless Shit’s Ersatz Yet Insanely Stupid Mnemonics ---
**Author:** ![Bam\_Boo\_Gut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8c91f0/32.png) [@Bam\_Boo\_Gut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bam_Boo_Gut)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2014, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-backronyms-and-folk-etymologies/694110/69 "2014-07-30T22:46:43Z")
I pried a flyer off my car this afternoon - a party called ICE. Insane Cooler Experience 😃 Our local airline LIAT: Late If A Tall Luggage In Another Terminal ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2014, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-backronyms-and-folk-etymologies/694110/70 "2014-07-30T22:52:34Z")
> [@Bam\_Boo\_Gut](#): > > \<\< snip \>\> > Our local airline LIAT: > Late If A Tall > Luggage In Another Terminal Love it! That’s the way to tamper with the language for best fit. ---
**Author:** ![EmilyG](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/emilyg/32/364_2.png) [@EmilyG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EmilyG)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2014, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-backronyms-and-folk-etymologies/694110/71 "2014-07-31T00:14:59Z")
> [@The\_Great\_Unwashed](#): > > Bug-eyed Useless Shit’s Ersatz Yet Insanely Stupid Mnemonics Ha! Now that’s clever. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![LawMonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d6d6ee/32.png) [@LawMonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LawMonkey)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2014, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-backronyms-and-folk-etymologies/694110/72 "2014-07-31T00:53:39Z")
In something of the same vein, I’ve realized that I’m also irritated by people capitalizing things as if they were acronyms when they are not. Example that brought this to mind, sighted on rather old documents from ten to fifteen years ago: FAX. At least they didn’t insert periods between the letters. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2014, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-backronyms-and-folk-etymologies/694110/73 "2014-07-31T01:07:40Z")
> [@LawMonkey](#): > > backronym You keep using that word. I do not think you realize it’s a cutesy assemblage like you are complaining about and one that makes me grind my teeth whenever I see it. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![AppallingGael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9bd4f/32.png) [@AppallingGael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AppallingGael)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2014, 8:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-backronyms-and-folk-etymologies/694110/74 "2014-07-31T08:30:30Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > In language study, a folk etymology is one where an unusual word changes over time to match an existing word. An example is “turtle.” The word originally meant a bird, named for the sound of its call. After the Norman invasion, the French word, “tortue” was used for the lizard, as opposed to the Anglo-Saxon “tortoise.” Folk etymology changed “tortue” to the more familiar “turtle,” so that the bird was renamed “turtle dove.” Relatedly, the “turtle” part of the East Side Manhattan neighborhood of Turtle Bay (where the UN is) is (probably) a corruption of the Dutch word “deutal”, meaning “bent blade”. ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2014, 10:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-backronyms-and-folk-etymologies/694110/75 "2014-07-31T10:37:14Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > The verb form of LASER is “to lase”. > > Gaaahhh. Steady - you’re sounding incoherent. 😛 A popular gag a few years ago was that the name of British building firm “Wimpey” stood for “We Import More Paddies Every Year”. ---
**Author:** ![vontsira](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/51bf81/32.png) [@vontsira](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vontsira)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2014, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-backronyms-and-folk-etymologies/694110/76 "2014-07-31T15:29:37Z")
> [@Ferret\_Herder](#): > > **YES.** This was what I was going to mention, since I’ve seen so many of these. It’s like they come up with the clever pseudo-acronym first to sound all inspiring and then fold, spindle, and mutilate what’s going on in the trial to fit that series of letters somehow, even if it kills them. A well-known / notorious instance in the UK of this process, in the law-enforcement field: for a good many years, the country’s police forces have had at their disposal a wide-ranging computer system, to consolidate information regarding especially serious crimes: the Home Office Large Major Enquiry System – HOLMES. Clearly, the great detective’s name was chosen first, and the contorted title to fit the initials, thought up afterwards (“Large Major” !? – tautologous, or what?). A bit of whimsy which many in the police and outside it, find irritating. A British thriller writer has indulged himself in a flight of fancy, by writing a short story in which the country’s criminal masterminds strike back by setting up a rival super-computer for their own purposes, named after Holmes’s arch-antagonist Professor Moriarty. The “backronym” here is, something like “Massively Ordering Reprehensible Information And Rot The Yard” (Scotland Yard, denoting in British “crime folklore” the headquarters of London’s Metropolitan Police Service, and by extension, Britain’s police-detective establishment as a whole). ---
**Author:** ![Steken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e274bd/32.png) [@Steken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steken)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2014, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-backronyms-and-folk-etymologies/694110/77 "2014-07-31T16:46:00Z")
> [@LC\_Strawhouse](#): > > There’s also an urban legend that the word “mafia” is derived from “Morte Alla Francia, Italia Avanti”, referring to a 13th-century conflict with France. :dubious: I learnt it as “Morte Alla Francia, Italia [something],” said to mean “death to the French, is the cry of the Italians!” Pretty sure I read it in - of all things - a mid-90’s Swedish-language edition of the _Guinness Book Of Records_. ---
**Author:** ![PorchePine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/94ad74/32.png) [@PorchePine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PorchePine)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2014, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-backronyms-and-folk-etymologies/694110/78 "2014-07-31T20:32:16Z")
Sort of related: Those “interesting” “facts” that people “know”. This morning, I had to deal with a coworker who told me how the average person swallows 2-3 spiders a year in their sleep. He couldn’t even form a coherent answer when I asked him who determined that, and how they did so. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-backronyms-and-folk-etymologies/694110.md?page=3)