{"id":954,"date":"2010-02-23T04:50:20","date_gmt":"2010-02-23T12:50:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/?p=954"},"modified":"2013-06-14T21:20:32","modified_gmt":"2013-06-15T04:20:32","slug":"what-a-backronym-is","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/index.php\/2010\/02\/what-a-backronym-is\/","title":{"rendered":"What a Backronym Is"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Today I found out<\/a> what a backronym is (also commonly spelled bacronym).<\/p>\n

In short, a backronym is when you treat a word that is not an acronym as if it was an acronym, constructing a phrase out of the word.\u00a0 For example: Delta – D<\/strong>oesn’t E<\/strong>ver L<\/strong>eave T<\/strong>he A<\/strong>irport<\/p>\n

Backronyms are often used for humorous effect as in the example above, but they are also quite commonly used unintentionally. For instance, many people believe the word “wiki” is an acronym for “What I Know Is”, but in fact it is not.\u00a0 The word ‘wiki’ is derived from the Hawaiian phrase “wiki wiki”, meaning ‘fast’. Thus used as: wiki – W<\/strong>hat I<\/strong> K<\/strong>now I<\/strong>s,\u00a0 makes this an example of a backronym.<\/p>\n

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The earliest known reference to the word backronym in print was in a November 1983 edition of the Washington Post monthly neologism contest.\u00a0 Here Meredeth G. Williams of Potomac was quoted by journalist Bob Levey as describing a backronym as “the same as an acronym, except that the words were chosen to fit the letters.”<\/p>\n

Since then, the word has slowly spread and can be found in numerous texts since around the early 1990s.<\/p>\n

Here are some other common backronyms:<\/p>\n