"Deep" Acronyms

LaurV · 2013-02-07, 10:30

This may be a good one for the puzzle subforum, but it is not as much as a puzzle as it is a general discussion, and it may turn out to be fun. Supermods please feel free to change the title (I am out of inspiration now, and anyhow I can't stop you to do it

).

Concrete: I am interested in acronyms of acronyms, of acronyms, .... etc, as deep as you can, but it must be one of large circulation, not something invented. How I came out with this idea, well, English is the single language I can think about, which invents new words by taking initials of another words. Other languages may do it too, but not at that scale. I am a bit of "amateur etymologist" and many times I had the surprise to find out that people don't know meaning of the words they use, and they don't know where the words are coming from, and I find this a bit frustrating, I don't know why. Right these days I had an argument with a colleague (a very intelligent American guy, with education in Electronics - not in physics, but the domains are related a lot) as he had no idea that "laser" is an acronym. From that we started a real argument and the discussion deviated (like a mersenneforum thread) to acronyms of acronyms, etc.

Like for example, ARM, with the meaning of "Advanced Risc Machines", where RISC itself is an acronym, "Reduced Instruction Set Computing", just to give you an example from "daily life" (at least my life).

This I would call a "level 2" acronym.

We found acronyms of level 4 already (few of them, very nice, I bet that some of you have no idea where do they come from, and you still use them quite frequently). I will not spoil your fun of finding them, or even some "deeper", if you can (I know no one of level 5, I know one of level 6, but it "a bit forced"

and a bit non-orthodox...).

So, who can find deeper and nicer acronyms? Or words which originated as acronyms, of course (like "laser" mentioned above).

firejuggler · 2013-02-07, 10:44

infite level : GNU :
wich translate to
Gnu is Not Unix

Uncwilly · 2013-02-07, 13:44

PINE
Pine Is Not ELM
Electronic Mail for UNIX

Dubslow · 2013-02-07, 20:45

Quote:

Originally Posted by firejuggler

infite level : GNU :
wich translate to
Gnu is Not Unix

Quote:

Originally Posted by Uncwilly

PINE
Pine Is Not ELM
Electronic Mail for UNIX

I don't think this quite counts for the OP's rules, but it's interesting none-the-less:

Quote:

The original spelling was “UNICS” (UNiplexed Information and Computing Service), which Ritchie later described as “a somewhat treacherous pun on Multics”, which stood for MULTiplexed Information and Computing Service.

http://www.faqs.org/docs/artu/ch02s01.html

Mr. P-1 · 2013-02-07, 22:07

TIARA Is A Recursive Acronym.
BINARY Is Not A Recursive Acronym.

kladner · 2013-02-07, 22:43

Excellent!

BTW, good to see you around, Mr P-1.

only_human · 2013-02-07, 22:54

Wine Is Not an Emulator

xilman · 2013-02-08, 07:33

Recursive in a rather more subtle way: TLA -- Three Letter Abbreviation.

Or Three Letter Acronym for those who are not quite so particular about etymology.

CRGreathouse · 2013-02-08, 07:55

I think that the game should be, like the bust beaver, to find the deepest abbreviation of finite depth. Infinite acronyms and abbreviations are a dime a dozen.

LaurV · 2013-02-08, 08:11

Quote:

Originally Posted by CRGreathouse

I think that the game should be, like the bust beaver, to find the deepest abbreviation of finite depth. Infinite acronyms and abbreviations are a dime a dozen.

Indeed, it was not in my intention to ask for infinite-deep (everybody hates infinite loops!

, or definitions given like "A prime number is a number which is prime" ... grrrr...) acronyms, and I completely ignored them. They are not so common out of the *nix universe, and I am not a *nix guy. Most people have no idea what GNU is (neither OS nor a kind of antelope

, no pun intended).

When I saw the second post of the thread I went quite angry with myself for forgetting to say a word against recurrent/recursive acronyms, but the harm was already done and I did not feel so good to change the rules after the game started. (edit: and in the same time, whole the game lost the fun, nobody can find an acronym "deeper" or "nicer" than the one in the second post..., that is why I went so angry with myself, in fact...).

ET_ · 2013-02-08, 08:16

Quote:

Originally Posted by xilman

Recursive in a rather more subtle way: TLA -- Three Letter Abbreviation.

Or Three Letter Acronym for those who are not quite so particular about etymology.

This is "semantically oxymoronic"...

AAAA --> Association Against Acronym Abuse

Luigi

2013-02-07, 10:30	#1
LaurV Romulan Interpreter Jun 2011 Thailand 7·1,373 Posts	"Deep" Acronyms This may be a good one for the puzzle subforum, but it is not as much as a puzzle as it is a general discussion, and it may turn out to be fun. Supermods please feel free to change the title (I am out of inspiration now, and anyhow I can't stop you to do it ). Concrete: I am interested in acronyms of acronyms, of acronyms, .... etc, as deep as you can, but it must be one of large circulation, not something invented. How I came out with this idea, well, English is the single language I can think about, which invents new words by taking initials of another words. Other languages may do it too, but not at that scale. I am a bit of "amateur etymologist" and many times I had the surprise to find out that people don't know meaning of the words they use, and they don't know where the words are coming from, and I find this a bit frustrating, I don't know why. Right these days I had an argument with a colleague (a very intelligent American guy, with education in Electronics - not in physics, but the domains are related a lot) as he had no idea that "laser" is an acronym. From that we started a real argument and the discussion deviated (like a mersenneforum thread) to acronyms of acronyms, etc. Like for example, ARM, with the meaning of "Advanced Risc Machines", where RISC itself is an acronym, "Reduced Instruction Set Computing", just to give you an example from "daily life" (at least my life). This I would call a "level 2" acronym. We found acronyms of level 4 already (few of them, very nice, I bet that some of you have no idea where do they come from, and you still use them quite frequently). I will not spoil your fun of finding them, or even some "deeper", if you can (I know no one of level 5, I know one of level 6, but it "a bit forced" and a bit non-orthodox...). So, who can find deeper and nicer acronyms? Or words which originated as acronyms, of course (like "laser" mentioned above). Last fiddled with by LaurV on 2013-02-07 at 10:33

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2013-02-07, 10:44	#2
firejuggler Apr 2010 Over the rainbow 5050₈ Posts	infite level : GNU : wich translate to Gnu is Not Unix

2013-02-07, 13:44	#3
Uncwilly 6809 > 6502 """"""""""""""""""" Aug 2003 101×103 Posts 2³×1,223 Posts	PINE Pine Is Not ELM Electronic Mail for UNIX

2013-02-07, 22:07	#5
Mr. P-1 Jun 2003 7·167 Posts	TIARA Is A Recursive Acronym. BINARY Is Not A Recursive Acronym.

2013-02-07, 22:43	#6
kladner "Kieren" Jul 2011 In My Own Galaxy! 27AE₁₆ Posts	Excellent! BTW, good to see you around, Mr P-1.

2013-02-07, 22:54	#7
only_human "Gang aft agley" Sep 2002 2×1,877 Posts	Wine Is Not an Emulator

2013-02-08, 07:33	#8
xilman Bamboozled! "𒉺𒌌𒇷𒆷𒀭" May 2003 Down not across 10,753 Posts	Recursive in a rather more subtle way: TLA -- Three Letter Abbreviation. Or Three Letter Acronym for those who are not quite so particular about etymology.

2013-02-08, 07:55	#9
CRGreathouse Aug 2006 3·1,993 Posts	I think that the game should be, like the bust beaver, to find the deepest abbreviation of finite depth. Infinite acronyms and abbreviations are a dime a dozen.