Acronyms are breeding like fire ants and can be just as deleterious to literal well-being. Some are nice though, like Qantas and CSIRO (affectionately Siro). Others are imposed on a word-fatigued world with bureaucratese pretensions, like: Pearl recommends the IRFS to BSC for their LES so that RCC won’t build the DAM – sorry, dam.
This gobbledygook spotlights the literal meaning of acronym, from the Greek akros and onoma, ‘extreme’ (initial letter) name’. Some acronyms are cleverly targeted, where words such as DOGS (Defense of Government Schools) becomes a savage ally to unleash on the private school enemy and its legislative accomplices. Other can be counter-productive, as in a little-known society of gourmand’s – Technical and Profession Epicurean Worshippers of Restaurant Menus, TAPEWORM. (Little-known cause I invented them!)
Americans even make acronyms from their names, like JFK. Though the English started the rot with HRH. Australians would be less then comforted, as would the prime ministerial owner, with the over-familiar JWH. Advertising impact also has a US (another one) origin, as when KFC replaced its more informative predecessor. Acronyms can also be compounds of parts of words; as when The Bank of New South Wales became Westpac – Wester Pacific. The full name, never written to my knowledge, is quite euphonious; the abbreviation rather suggesting some kind of personal hygiene product.
Sometimes even the acronym is compacted, OJ from OJS; at other times expended, George W. to George Dubbya. An associative curiosity in the fact that Americans dote on their middle names; though sometime only expressed in its initial letter. In this spirit, I must confess a tingle of pride when I see my own 3-name initials, ARW, on a passing numberplate. So, NPR (Nobody’s Perfect, Right?).
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