*BSD News Article 97858


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From: rosalia@cygnus.co.uk
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?
Date: 12 Jun 1997 22:46:24 +0100
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greg@trefoil.bogs.org (Greg Shenaut) writes:

>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'.

I only said that my friend Andrew did not find it in the 26 volume
OED.  I am, in any case, only partly convinced by this and the other
post.  Acropolis is not the first city, or the beginning of the city,
but the high peak of the city.

In greek acros is the peak, not the beginning, and I don't find the
connection too plausible unless more greek philological facts are
produced.