…y’know, like “Scuba,” or “Radar”?
Or jeep?
Good question.
How about snafu?
It’s called an “aatbawiior” but “aatbawiior” is not yet an aatbawiior in its own right. 
An acronym is an abbreviation which is pronounced as a word, such as scuba and radar and laser.
If you cannot say it as a word, but have to pronounce the individual letters, eg CNN, BBC, then it is not an acronym, it is an abbreviation.
So acronym is the word you are looking for.
An acronym is an abbreviation that is pronounced as a word (e.g. SCUBA).
An initialism is an abbreviation that is pronounced letter-by-letter (e.g. CIA).
acronym is a word formed from the initial letters.
initialism is an acronym formed from initial letters that is not a word.
abbreviation is the short form of a word. e.g. example/e.g.
Poor example.
e.g. is an abbreviation of exempli gratia. Frequently used as a replacement for ‘for example’
If an acronym is a word, how can an initialism be an acronym and yet not a word? Both are abbreviations (of phrases), but neither set is completely contained in the other.
Wikipedia article on initialisms
Wikipedia article on acronyms
[SUP]Is there a word for “An acronym that becomes a word in it’s own right”? [/SUP]
I suppose an acronym could be considered to have become a word in its own right when it is no longer capitalised.
Don’t know if there’s any special term for this though.
shot down in ten mins for spouting nonsense of the top of my head.
off :smack:
As has been said already, there is a special term for this – acronym. An abbreviation that has become a word (and is pronounceable as a word) is an acronym. That’s the definition.
Thanks, acsenray, I was beginning to feel that I must be invisible!
Either that or that I was, acronomymically speaking, just a tit
(Totally Ignored Twit)
:smack:
SKBTTTIW
(Should Know Better Than Try To Invent Words)
When I’m copyediting, I’ll allow an acronym that’s pronounceable and is five letters or more; fewer than five I cap as an initialism.
And I leave an acronym in all caps if it’s only pronounced by saying some of the letters, rather than pronouncing them: ANWR (an-war), RISD(riz-dee), CQAP(see-quap), etc. (Not the best examples, because they’re all under 5 letters, but you get the picture.)
Jeep, Redboss? If you’re referring to the vehicle may this more accurately be rendered as GEEP since I understand that the original derivation was from GP> (General Purpose.)
But it still doesn’t make it an acronym - if we’re talking about vehicles.
Almost certainly not true. No evidence for that assumption, which IS commonly held.
I’ve just looked up JEEP in Webster’s and Encarta.
[Mid-20th century. From GP , from general purpose , probably influenced by “Eugene the Jeep,” character in the cartoon strip “Popeye.”]
Microsoft® Encarta® Reference Library 2003. © 1993-2002 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
Webster’s will not allow me to copy and paste but the entry confirms Encarta.