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Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.carno.net.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!munnari.OZ.AU!spool.mu.edu!uwm.edu!chi-news.cic.net!howland.erols.net!news-peer.sprintlink.net!news-pull.sprintlink.net!news-in-east.sprintlink.net!news.sprintlink.net!Sprint!207.241.0.194!news.wwa.com!news.ucdavis.edu!trefoil.bogs.org!greg From: greg@trefoil.bogs.org (Greg Shenaut) Newsgroups: comp.unix.shell,comp.os.linux.misc,comp.os.linux.x,alt.os.linux,comp.unix.bsd.misc,comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc,gnu.misc.discuss,comp.unix.solaris Subject: Re: unix acronyms -collecting a list? Followup-To: comp.unix.shell,comp.os.linux.misc,comp.os.linux.x,alt.os.linux,comp.unix.bsd.misc,comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc,gnu.misc.discuss,comp.unix.solaris Date: 12 Jun 1997 02:13:16 GMT Organization: BOGS Research Group Lines: 36 Message-ID: <5nnlvs$lc1$2@mark.ucdavis.edu> References: <337C64F0.41C6@cs.ucc.ie> <5lsbv4$id8@bmtlh10.bnr.ca> <3383FA57.4855@uab.ericsson.se> <EAMxy9.EF4@cogsci.ed.ac.uk> <A01469D243A414B4.60EFD3C313DDF166.4A538EC778681837@library-proxy.airnews.net> <3396D1DD.6495@qanv.pbz> <3398849a.13740572@news.dircon.co.uk> <339CA4A4.2A1A9E65@ripco.com> <r7vi3kk68t.fsf@masala.cygnus.co.uk> Reply-To: gkshenaut@ucdavis.edu NNTP-Posting-Host: bogslab.ucdavis.edu X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.2 PL2] Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au comp.unix.shell:46024 comp.os.linux.misc:180157 comp.os.linux.x:64174 alt.os.linux:22178 comp.unix.bsd.misc:3558 comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc:42819 gnu.misc.discuss:31765 comp.unix.solaris:109422 But certainly the decomposition of 'acronym' into the Greek 'acr(o)'+'onym' is straightforward enough. It means something like 'beginnings-name', or a name derived from the beginnings of the words which make it up. Compare 'acropolis' and 'synonym'. -Greg rosalia@cygnus.co.uk wrote: : > > I'm not too lazy or proud to look it up in a dictionary, but my 13 : > > volume Oxford English Dictionary has no entry for acronym. : I am very impressed by this whole thread, and I told some of the : people in the British office I am visiting. They are very smart and : culturny, and they explained to me that the first edition of the OED : (Oxford English Dictionary) was started a very long time ago, and the : letter 'a' would have been completed before the 1940s. : So one guy went home and checked in his second edition of the OED, : which has 26 volumes (!). It *does* have an entry for ``acronym'', : and mentions that it the word was invented in the US in the 1940s. : The etymology is unknown. : I believe it must stand for something like ``Acronym for Recursively : Obsessed Northern Yankee Mythologies'' or something like that. : In other words, someone invented the ultimate acronym: a word that : describes its own concept, creates its own concept, represents itself, : and is recursive in the XINU and GNU sense. : And on top of that the inventor kept it a secret, and probably smiled : subtly every time a new dictionary covered her (his) special word. : I wonder who this person is; their email address is probably something : like acronym@we-run-the-world-in-secret.org