Apronym
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An apronym is a word, which as an acronym or backronym, has a meaning related to the meaning of the words constituting the acronym or backronym. For example, the acronym for Seasonal affective disorder, SAD, reflects the actual meaning of the term as denoting the emotion of suffering or sadness. Homonyms of a word may also be used to form apronyms.
Apronyms are a form of word play and may be created for serious purposes or for amusement. Most apronyms are backronyms (ie. reverse or back-formed acronyms), in the sense that they are created from an existing word, or a homophone thereof.
The word "apronym" is a portmanteau of "apropos acronym" and/or "appropriate acronym" and was coined on the Acronyms Forum in 2003.
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Purposes
Apronyms are created for several purposes.
- Serious purposes such as the name of an organisation or programme. In such cases usually the apronym and its expanded term are chosen together for their aptness to the thing being named. See the examples of SAD and SADD in the introduction.
- As mnemonics for difficult-to-spell words. For example, a recursive acronym for "rhythm" is Rhythm Has Your Two Hips Moving.
- As amusement where the objective is the clever and inventive use of words rather than practical or sensible expanded terms. Irishman Tony McCoy O'Grady and others have created thousands of them as word play on the apronyms.com website. For example, infinity - Increment Numbers Forever - It's Nuts, I Tell You!
- Related to the previous is the amusement of creating jocular, and often also derogatory, terms from names of brands, companies, organisations etc. For example, Ford – Fix Or Repair Daily.
Apronyms which are not back-formed are usually unintended apronyms.
Some apronyms
- AGE - Advanced Glycosylation Endproducts, a very cute apronym, which combines the fact of glycosylation of long-lived proteins, e.g. in connective tissue, as well as the accumulation of irreversibly changed proteins with age.
- BASIC - Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code, a very basic computer programming language
- BRIT - British Record Industry Trust, organisers of the Brit Awards
- CREDIT - Court-Referred Education, Drug Intervention and Treatment, credit given towards completion of the course
- DARE - Drug Abuse Resistance Education, dare to say no.
- HERO - Highway Emergency Response Operators, a hero to a stranded motorist
- HOPE - a lottery scholarship for "helping outstanding pupils educationally", giving them hope for a college education
- MADD - Mothers Against Drunk Driving, mad (angry) about drunk driving
- SAD - Seasonal affective disorder, a form of clinical depression making people sad, often during cold, dark winter days
- SADD - Students Against Destructive Decisions (an example of an apronym which is a homophone)
- SHAG - (Sexual Health Awareness Group)
- SLAPP - strategic lawsuit against public participation, a slap at whistleblowers
- USA PATRIOT Act - Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism
An example of a foreign-language apronym is HAMAS, which is the acronym for Harakat al-Muqawamah al-Islamiyyah, and Arabic for "Islamic Resistance Movement"; "hamas" is the Arabic word for Zeal.
Humourous apronyms
In some cases, the names of existing entities are targets for subtle changes to obtain a more apt or amusing acronym.
These often are schools, such as:
- South Henrietta Institute of Technology near Rochester, New York (SHIT)
- Thousand Islands Technical School in Brockville, Ontario (TITS)
- Amherstview Secondary School in Odessa, Ontario (ASS)
- Ossington Old Orchard Public School in Toronto, Ontario (OOOPS)
The same approach may however create names for programmes or administrations which form distasteful or inappropriate apronyms, such as Retire Aged Personnel Early.
Backronyms
And a few which are backronyms:
- APRONYM - A Petite Reminder (Openers Notation) Yields Mnemonic
- INFINITY - Increment Numbers Forever - It's Nuts, I Tell You!
- IRELAND - Independent Republic, English Lodgers Are Nearly Dislodged!
- RHYTHM - Rhythm Has Your Two Hips Moving (this one is a recursive acronym as well)
External links
- A large list of apronyms may be found at apronyms.com (http://apronyms.com)
- Etymology of apronym (http://apronyms.com/apronyms.html)