They seem to be becoming popular.
GNU claims its initials mean GNU is Not Unix
WINE claims its initials mean WINE Is Not an Emulator
In these cases, recursive acronymns appear to be just faulty logic, but maybe there’s a trend to be spotted anyway.
When I mentioned this at work, someone said Lyndon Johnson did lots like that. The one for his army draft: FAIR was supposed to mean Fair And Impartial Random.
I guess he really was after “redundant acronymns”.
Another Unix-ish one:
PINE means Pine Is Not Elm
Both are mail readers.
PIN number
The whole Windows NT thing annoys me… the 2000 startup screen says “Built on Windows NT technology!” Um, so it’s build on Windows New Technology Technology?
On a side note, on NPR they were talking about the HIV virus in Africa, and the reporter kept calling it the “HI virus”, which I thought was interesting.
MUNG - Mung Until No Good
From the Not the RPI Handbook
Ooh, simulpost. NT does NOT mean “New Technology.” It means NT. That’s it. Just as MMX does NOT mean multimedia extensions. Of course, both actually DO mean what they claim not to mean, but officially, they are just cool combinations of letters.
Hmm, all the “Microsoft confidential” (oooo… scary) training docs I had when I did Win2k support said it meant “New Technology”. But I’ve been wrong before ;).
Not quite what you asked for, but here’s another one from the department of redundancy department…
ATM machine
Drives me nuts every time I hear it.
From the thread title I thought you meant acronyms that were composed of initials of other acronyms – if you combined the FBI, the USAF and NASA and called the new organization FUN, that would be a recursive acronym, IMO.
I work in defense contracting and it gets that crazy at times, although no real examples leap to mind at the moment. However, one acronym everyone around here knows is TLA: Three-Letter Acronym.
Am I the only one (thus far) to say that “acronym” means a pronouncable word made up of a series of letters, rather than an abbreviation such as “NT”? As far as recursive acronyms go, I am certain that a great many supposed acronyms came to pass only in the most recent decades, when there was quite a trend for having zippy-sounding little names, and a sudden trend for finance-related magazines written and edited (or not edited) with a view to quick popular sales, and no time to think.
Just realised - there should be an old (or even young fogey) alert here. BUT I do admit that some acronyms can be clever and fun.
Dilbert once worked on TTP, which stands for The TTP Project.
FUN would not be a recursive acronym since it doesn’t call itself. Same with ATM machine, and HIV virus.
The CMA Awards. The Country Music Awards Awards.
We find 4 more in the jargon file entry http://www.tuxedo.org/~esr/jargon/html/entry/recursive-acronym.html
Cygnus - Cygnus, your GNU support
Liar - Liar imitates apply recursively
Eine - Eine is not emacs
Zwei - Zwei was eine, initially
Plus, there are some backronyms for EMACS that are recursive, as well.
First: anything good (or bad) enough for Dilbert is ditto for me.
Second: one entity that changed its name (well, OK, then, only if I believe a friend of a friend) was the Sheffield Higher Information Technology Education Initiative.
Rasa is right! NT does stand for New Technology.
well, not recursive, but redundant: NIC card.
I notice that a lot of these acronyms that go redundant seem to be because we expect the acronym to be a special case of a common word. Why on earth were “card” and “machine” made part of these acronyms anyway?
NIC card
and ATM machine.
Given how ATM can have different meanings:
asynchronous transfer mode
automatic teller machine
It’s hardly surprising that people have tacked on a “machine” to the end to make meaning clear.
Yeah, because it’s so hard to figure out from the context whether someone wants to get money from an automatic transaction machine or an asynchronous transfer mode. :rolleyes:
From their commercials, I used to figure ADAP stood for ADAP Discount Auto Parts. It seems to me that this trend is really confined to Unix applications, which are often the source of cheesy puns.
And Flymaster, damn, I haven’t seen that in a while. It really does need to be updated, though. Half of campus has been remodelled since that came out.
I just knew someone was going to say that. I should’ve posted a context. I’ve actually gotten thrown off in a discussion once by something sorta like this.
“So, have you use ATM before?”
ok. that wasn’t the exact question, but I had no idea if they were talking about modes or machines.
How about this:
“Do you think the First Union banking network should rely on ATM as it’s primary means of connecting with the customers?”
Are we referring to a protocol or machine?
Again, it’s more effort then one should have to spend.
And in the case of the NIC card. If someone doesn’t know what a NIC is, adding card gives them some idea of where it is in the machine, and how it was installed or replaced.
Anyway, this is getting way more attention then it deserves, so I am self-diagnosing myself as avoiding my take-home midterm.