When and how did acronyms originate?
_
Many acronyms are really backronyms.
_
When looking for the origin of an unexplained word, people sometimes suggest that the word was coined as an acronym of some phrase or other. Occasionally that notion is correct and there are some commonly used words that we might use without necessarily being aware they are acronyms, for example ‘gulag’ or ‘Hamas’.
Words that were coined as acronyms form quite a small part of the language. Nevertheless, supposed acronym derivations are the largest source of folk etymologies - those popular fallacies about the origins of words or phrases. With many of these false derivations the word comes first and then some suitably chirpy phrase is invented to match it.
These back-formations have been given the intuitive name ‘backronyms’. There are many examples and two of the more common, ‘posh’ and ‘golf’ (supposedly ‘port out, starboard home’ and ‘gentlemen only, ladies forbidden’ respectively), make it onto the Nonsense Nine, my list of popular fallacies. Other backronym examples are:
cop - _C_onstable _o_n _p_atrol
news - _N_orth, _e_ast, _w_est, _s_outh
Those two are at least plausible. Two better known but frankly ludicrous examples are:
fuck - _F_or _u_nlawful _c_arnal _k_nowledge
s*** - _S_hip _h_igh _i_n _t_ransit
Some backronym coinages make little attempt to feign authenticity and are clearly intended to poke fun; for example, Ford - _F_ix _o_r _r_epair _d_aily and DOS - _D_efunct _o_perating _s_ystem.
Deciding whether an acronym’s supposed origin is genuine isn’t always so easy. The best place to start is the age of the word. If the word is old, then it probably isn’t an acronym. The term ‘acronym’ itself wasn’t coined until the mid 20th century. The earliest known citation of it is from American Notes and Queries, February 1943:
Words made up of the initial letters or syllables of other words… I have seen… called by the name acronym.
Some examples do date from before 1943 but were rare enough beasts in the early 20th century not to have needed a generic name.
The field of computing is now the most prolific source of acronyms - ‘gif’, ‘ascii’, ‘wysiwyg’, ‘mpeg’, not to mention the names of most programming languages; the list seems endless. Before computers, the military held top spot. Almost all of the earliest known acronyms derive from the armed forces; for example (with the date of their earliest use as an acronym that I know of):
Gestapo - _Ge_heime _St_aats-_Po_lizei (1934)
Waaf - _W_omen’s _A_uxiliary _A_ir _F_orce (1940)
Radar - _Ra_dio _d_etection _a_nd _r_anging (1941)
Prior to these, there were a few military words, which, while being strictly initialisms, come about as close as we can get to being proper acronyms, and many people would accept them as such.
Anzac - _A_ustralian and _N_ew _Z_ealand _A_rmy _C_orps (1915)
Naafi - _N_avy, _A_rmy, and _A_ir _F_orce _I_nstitutes (1927)
So, if someone suggests to you that the name of the 15th century game of golf was coined as an acronym, you might suggest suitable therapy, or possibly a free membership of the Committee Resisting Acronymic Proliferation.