I want the master list of major mutations in what seemed to be common acronyms of their time. I’m willing to leave room for commercial transitions like HP mutating from a globally known steak sauce into some of Silicon Valley’s founding fathers.
I’m also looking for the IBM into HAL (no, not really) sort of alterations of meaning. More like, for fun let’s include the lamentable complications of giving your railroad or top-end stereo systems the logo of B&O. Later on, I’ll flog my own favorite about PMS (Lasers) if no one else beats me to it.
I can remember when AI used to just mean Artificial Insemination. Still gives me a giggle when I see it used in the other context!
But then, I guess city folk never would have had much cause to make an acronym out of artificial insemination, so I may be alone in my mirth on this one…
I posted recently on an Irish message board about how I used to live in SF (meaning San Francisco) and somebody replied “How can you live in Sinn Féin?”
Slightly off topic – back in the days when I was teaching religion at the college level, I once proctored an exam for a colleague in an Old Testament class.
I handed out the exams, and a few minutes later, one girl came up and pointed at one of the questions, which was “something something something OT.” “What does OT stand for?,” she asked.
Slightly taken aback, I said, "Well, it might be ‘overtime,’ it might be ‘occupational therapy,’ and it might be ‘Old Testament.’ "
“Yeah, but which one is it?”
At which point I started laughing and just waved her away, shaking my head.
CD = Certificate of Deposit. Burning a CD was not something you wanted to do. :0
Re OT: Samuel R. Delany once spoke about how one of the characters in a story of his had been injured and had an OT come in to help him. When translated into French, it was an Old Testament that did the job.
STD used to mean in the UK " subscriber trunk dialing ". The term came into being when automatic long distance dialing was introduced in the 60’s . Now it is used in the medical sense only.
