# Making Acronyms Out of Nothing at All
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-acronyms-out-of-nothing-at-all/816443
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [June 20, 2018, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-acronyms-out-of-nothing-at-all/816443 "2018-06-20T14:54:21Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@DooWahDiddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DooWahDiddy)
#### Post date: [June 20, 2018, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-acronyms-out-of-nothing-at-all/816443/1 "2018-06-20T14:54:21Z")
It always intrigues me (and sometimes infuriates me) when people insist the letters of common words stand for something that means that same word. For example, swag means “Stuff We All Get”, rap means “Rhythm and Poetry”, etc. There is no evidence that either of those is true, and while they make sense, they were obviously attributed to the words _after_ they already existed, not the other way around.
What are some others you’ve heard, and how many more can we come up with? Is a bed a Big Easing Device? Is a desk a Designated Employee Skill Kit? No. No they’re not.
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### Author:  [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)
#### Post date: [June 20, 2018, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-acronyms-out-of-nothing-at-all/816443/2 "2018-06-20T16:10:13Z")
First time I encountered swag, it meant Scientific Wild-Ass Guess. Certainly more colorful than “estimate” or “my gut tells me”
CAR = Conveyance Around Roads
YARD = You’re Always Riding [John] Deere
POO = Pile Of Offal
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### Author:  [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)
#### Post date: [June 20, 2018, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-acronyms-out-of-nothing-at-all/816443/3 "2018-06-20T16:26:54Z")
The word you are looking for is “[backronym](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backronym).”
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### Author:  [@Novelty\_Bobble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Novelty_Bobble)
#### Post date: [June 20, 2018, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-acronyms-out-of-nothing-at-all/816443/4 "2018-06-20T17:03:59Z")
indeed,
“posh” does not stand for “port out - starboard home”, “wharf” does not mean “warehouse at river frontage”, quite how these things get started can be hard to fathom but one interesting case might be the humble “club sandwich”
In a recent series of the rather brilliant “car share” (by Peter Kay and Sian Gibson…seriously, watch it, it is wonderful) Kayleigh contemplates what the “U” in [club sandwich](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTiKbLHpqpU) stands for.
From that springs a meme of “chicken and lettuce under bacon”. Bollocks of course but you can bet that is how such things start. It gets coined somewhere (don’t know if “car share” were the first) then it gets popularised and gains traction. Before you know it, it is fact!
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### Author:  [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)
#### Post date: [June 20, 2018, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-acronyms-out-of-nothing-at-all/816443/5 "2018-06-20T17:59:37Z")
Thinking back a bit, the band Kiss does not stand for “Knights In Satan’s Service” and AC/CD does not stand for AntiChrist Devil’s Child. (Also, the “Billy” in Billy Mayo does not stand for Bloviating Ignorant Lying Loser.)
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### Author:  [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)
#### Post date: [June 20, 2018, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-acronyms-out-of-nothing-at-all/816443/6 "2018-06-20T18:10:58Z")
How about “golf”? Gentlemen Only, Ladies Forbidden?
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### Author:  [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)
#### Post date: [June 20, 2018, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-acronyms-out-of-nothing-at-all/816443/7 "2018-06-20T18:42:19Z")
[Special High Intensity Training.](http://www.theurbancountry.com/2005/06/special-high-intensity-training-memo.html)
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### Author:  [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)
#### Post date: [June 20, 2018, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-acronyms-out-of-nothing-at-all/816443/8 "2018-06-20T19:05:15Z")
There are lots of these supposed acronyms that ain’t:
\*\*Fornication Under Consent of the King
Constable on Patrol
Westernized Oriental Gentleman
\*\*
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### Author:  [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)
#### Post date: [June 20, 2018, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-acronyms-out-of-nothing-at-all/816443/9 "2018-06-20T20:37:03Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#):
>
> There are lots of these supposed acronyms that ain’t:
>
> \*\*Fornication Under Consent of the King
> Constable on Patrol
> Westernized Oriental Gentleman
> \*\*
For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge
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### Author:  [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)
#### Post date: [June 20, 2018, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-acronyms-out-of-nothing-at-all/816443/10 "2018-06-20T20:51:57Z")
“Ford” - Fuckin’ Ol’ Rebuilt Dodge, Fix Or Repair Daily
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### Author:  [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)
#### Post date: [June 20, 2018, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-acronyms-out-of-nothing-at-all/816443/11 "2018-06-20T20:55:23Z")
In newspapers, they will usually print the full name of an organization the first time it appears in an article. Afterwards, they will print the initials.
Every few years, Jim Belshaw writes a column extolling the Society for the Preservation and Enhancement of the Reputation of Millard Fillmore, Last Of the Whigs.
Sometimes the proofreaders fall for it, sometimes they don’t.
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### Author:  [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)
#### Post date: [June 20, 2018, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-acronyms-out-of-nothing-at-all/816443/12 "2018-06-20T22:36:28Z")
> [@Shoeless](#):
>
> “Ford” - Fuckin’ Ol’ Rebuilt Dodge, Fix Or Repair Daily
Found On Road, Dead.
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### Author:  [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)
#### Post date: [June 20, 2018, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-acronyms-out-of-nothing-at-all/816443/13 "2018-06-20T22:38:32Z")
Never mind, I got ninja’d
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### Author:  [@snowthx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snowthx)
#### Post date: [June 20, 2018, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-acronyms-out-of-nothing-at-all/816443/14 "2018-06-20T22:46:45Z")
Don’t you mean MAONAA?
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### Author:  [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)
#### Post date: [June 20, 2018, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-acronyms-out-of-nothing-at-all/816443/15 "2018-06-20T23:26:14Z")
> [@Shoeless](#):
>
> “Ford” - Fuckin’ Ol’ Rebuilt Dodge, Fix Or Repair Daily
Fiat = Fix it again, Tony.
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### Author:  [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)
#### Post date: [June 21, 2018, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-acronyms-out-of-nothing-at-all/816443/16 "2018-06-21T00:10:20Z")
> [@bibliophage](#):
>
> Fiat = Fix it again, Tony.
The German version:
Fiat = Fehler in allen Teilen (faults in all parts)
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### Author:  [@pool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pool)
#### Post date: [June 21, 2018, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-acronyms-out-of-nothing-at-all/816443/17 "2018-06-21T00:24:25Z")
Actor Gary Busey is known to make up a lot of these about what certain words mean to him personally, he calls his Buseyisms:
I like this one, NOW - No Other Way
Here is a list:
[https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.buzzfeed.com/amphtml/lyapalater/12-buseyisms-to-live-by](https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.buzzfeed.com/amphtml/lyapalater/12-buseyisms-to-live-by)
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### Author:  [@CharmaChameleon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CharmaChameleon)
#### Post date: [June 21, 2018, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-acronyms-out-of-nothing-at-all/816443/18 "2018-06-21T03:07:04Z")
I used to work on a DoD program called Integrated System Test Capability.
Not long after we started up on that, lots of people had to make a “word” out of it: Iss-tick.
Morons. There are lots of them, everywhere.
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### Author:  [@I\_can\_t\_think\_of\_a\_name](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_can_t_think_of_a_name)
#### Post date: [June 21, 2018, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-acronyms-out-of-nothing-at-all/816443/19 "2018-06-21T03:27:27Z")
> [@Shoeless](#):
>
> “Ford” - Fuckin’ Ol’ Rebuilt Dodge, Fix Or Repair Daily
From this side of the pond there’s “Lotus” - Lots Of Trouble, Usually Serious.
I think that when people believe a word really is an acronym (as opposed to wordplay like the above) it’s because of the human tendency to detect patterns even when they don’t exist. It’s a good rule of thumb that a word that existed in English before the 20th century is not an acronym. I don’t know of any exceptions to that.
Etymology is a lot more interesting than merely acronyms, but it almost always leads to a question without a clear answer and people tend to dislike not having a clear answer.
Take “cop” for example. American English, shortened from the English English word “copper”. A clear answer. The English English word “copper” derives from the (no longer used) English English verb “cop”, meaning “to seize, to take hold of” and became associated with the police because it came to be used to refer to act of making an arrest. Arrest = cop, person who makes arrests = copper. A clear answer. So why did “cop” mean “to seize, to take hold of” in English English in the past? I don’t know off the top of my head, but the answer is probably known…and no, it isn’t. As I thought (but didn’t know), it’s probably derived from the Latin “capere”. But maybe not. There isn’t a clear answer. Even if it was, that just moves the question to the origin of the Latin word “capere”. Sooner or later, you’ll run out of clear answers into “probably” or “maybe” and sooner or later you’ll reach “nobody knows”.
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### Author:  [@I\_can\_t\_think\_of\_a\_name](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_can_t_think_of_a_name)
#### Post date: [June 21, 2018, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-acronyms-out-of-nothing-at-all/816443/20 "2018-06-21T03:32:06Z")
> [@Musicat](#):
>
> How about “golf”? Gentlemen Only, Ladies Forbidden?
No. It’s not known for certain, but is probably from either a Scottish word meaning “to hit” or a Danish?Dutch?Norse? (one of those, I don’t remember which) word meaning “stick”. Or possibly a mashup of both - “to hit with a stick” would fit golf very well.
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