# Word derivation/ is this true ? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 22, 2003, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-derivation-is-this-true/150104 "2003-01-22T00:45:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2003, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-derivation-is-this-true/150104/21 "2003-01-22T17:59:02Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by emulsified \* > \*\*I always understood acronyms to be new words formed from initials while initialisms were spoken as a series of letters. For example, radar (spoken “ray-dar”) is an acronym while IRS (“eye-are-ess”) spoken letter-by-letter is an initialism. > > If this is the case, I’m not sure how you’d classify modem, which is word parts and not letters, though “blend” doesn’t seem like a bad term to me. \*\* “Blend” is correct; such words are also known as **portmanteau** words. I just saw a crossword puzzle in the paper a couple of days ago that had portmanteaus as a theme, with the root words intersecting at a common letter, such as “gasoline” (across) sharing an “o” with “alcohol” (down) to form “gasohol.” ---
**Author:** ![Satyagrahi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f475e1/32.png) [@Satyagrahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Satyagrahi)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2003, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-derivation-is-this-true/150104/22 "2003-01-22T19:36:48Z")
Don’t leave out the origin of the name ‘Pakistan.’ As I understand it, the name was coined in the early 20th Cent. from the initials of three provinces in Northwest India and then had the generic ‘-istan’ (land of) tacked onto the end: **P** unjab, **A** hmedabad, **K** ashmir - **istan** ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2003, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-derivation-is-this-true/150104/23 "2003-01-22T20:51:19Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by emulsified \* > I always understood acronyms to be new words formed from initials while initialisms were spoken as a series of letters. For example, radar (spoken “ray-dar”) is an acronym while IRS (“eye-are-ess”) spoken letter-by-letter is an initialism. Every time someone makes this kind of distinction, I ask what they call those acronyms/initialisms that are spelled out by some people and pronounced another way by others. No one has ever given me an answer. Furthermore, I’ve only communicated with one person who actually had a good reason (speech synthesis software) for make this acronym/initialism distinction and even that was not convincing. To me it seems to be an unnecessary level of pedantry. ---
**Author:** ![sailor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2003, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-derivation-is-this-true/150104/24 "2003-01-22T21:20:32Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by C K Dexter Haven \* > \*\*One of the earliest acronyms, pretty much, was “radar.” \*\* Ummm. . . OK. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2003, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-derivation-is-this-true/150104/25 "2003-01-24T18:46:59Z")
Here’s some history on acronym. From the OED online: > [@](#): > > A word formed from the initial letters of other words. > > 1943 Amer. N. & Q. Feb. 167/1 Words made up of the initial letters or syllables of other words…I have seen…called by the name acronym. > > 1947 Word Study May 6/2 Some new forms combine the initial syllables (resembling blends) instead of initial letters, as in the case of Amvets (American Veterans’ Association)…but they still are in the spirit of acronyming. > > 1971 Daily Tel. 3 Feb. 12 Has the Establishment realised, inquires an acronymically-minded reader, that if the Industrial Relations Bill becomes law, it will not be only Ireland that is saddled with an IRA? So both initials and syllables can constitute an acronym. (There are several other syllable examples given.) But is IRA to be pronounced eye-are-ay or like the name Ira? In the US we use the individual letters, but I don’t know British practice. ---
**Author:** ![Agback](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/977dab/32.png) [@Agback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Agback)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2003, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-derivation-is-this-true/150104/26 "2003-01-24T22:14:39Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by samarm \* > \*\*“modem” is derived from “modulator demodulator”. Not precisely an acronym, but derived in a similar way. \*\* This sort of construction is called a ‘portmanteau word’. The phrase was coined by CL Dodgson (Lewis Carroll), and was taken up by HW Fowler in his epoch-making _Modern English Usage_. Regards, Agback ---
**Author:** ![Rucksinator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/898d66/32.png) [@Rucksinator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rucksinator)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2003, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-derivation-is-this-true/150104/27 "2003-01-24T22:41:14Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by insider \* > \*\* (A) In the 16th and 17th centuries… > (B)Thus evolved the term > “S.H.I.T,” which has come down through the centuries and is in use to > this very day. \*\* A = pre-20th century B = acronym etymology A + B = false (almost always) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-derivation-is-this-true/150104.md?page=1)