This definition has broken my head inside.

[Lobsang]

"What is PHP?
PHP stands for PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor "
How can the ‘P’ in ‘PHP’ stand for ‘PHP’? It’s aninfinite regression nightmare!

[Don_t_Panic]

It’s a recursive acronym, a.k.a. some dickhead’s attempt at being funny. Apparently, according to that page, it was originally “Personal Home Page”, until some smartass changed it for version 3.

[Sunspace]

You get a lot of these among certain sectors of the software community. For instance, GNU stands for “GNU’s Not Unix”.

[Fiveroptic]

That’s kind of like the rumour that the Unix text editor PINE stood for “Pine Is Not Elm.” I’ve never known if I should really believe it.

[Napier]

Or like the rumor that SAS stands for “Statistical Analysis System”. It doesn’t, even though the software actually is a statistical analysis system. It’s just a word.

Of course, it used to stand for “Statistical Analysis System”, but that was a long time ago. Back when they sold software. Now they don’t sell software, they sell “solutions”. Since my problem is that I need statistical analysis system software, I guess they do sell solutions, but this is still way beyond my comprehension.

[Fiveroptic]

So wondering now about the origin of PINE, I came across a page about backronyms. Apparently, PHP, GNU, and PINE are all examples of “recursive backronyms.”

Recursive

Some backronyms are formed recursively. Perhaps the most famous of these is GNU, the open source software project, which stands for GNU’s Not Unix.[37] Later software projects also adopted recursive names, including:

* PINE — PINE Is Nearly Elm or PINE Is Not Elm, referring to the e-mail program Elm (an acronym for "ELectronic Mail").[38] Note, however, that PINE now officially stands for "Program for Internet News & E-mail".
* LAME — LAME Ain't an MP3 Encoder.[39]
* WINE — WINE Is Not an Emulator.[40]
* PHP — PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor.[41]
* UIRA — UIRA Isn't a Recursive Acronym.

I still haven’t figured out what kind of backronym “SAS” is. I know the answer is on that page some place but my eyes are starting to cross from lack of sleep.