By Barbara McAllister
Word of the Day: Acronym
An acronym is a new word made up of the first letter or letters of a phrase or title, like SCUBA for Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus. Familiar acronyms include RADAR (RAdio Detecting And Ranging) and LASER (Light Amplification by the Stimulated Emission of Radiation).
Not as widely known is TASER, said to be inspired by the 1911 book “Tom Swift and his Electric Rifle.” The inventor of the taser was a fan of the popular Tom Swift series (1910-1941) about a young inventor who came up with fantastic inventions. Books like “Tom Swift and his Giant Robot” and “Tom Swift and his Megascope Space Prober” were the original sci-fi thrillers. Visionaries like Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple Computer, and Isaac Asimov, the science fiction writer, said they were influenced by Tom Swift books.
The opposite of an acronym is a backronym. It takes an existing word and backs a meaning into it. Businesses and writers favor these catchy creations. BASIC, the simple computer language once widely used, stands for Beginner’s All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code. Ian Fleming came up with SPECTRE for James Bond’s global villain from an acronym of Special Executive for Counter-intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion. It’s a bit of a stretch but a great name for an evil organization. Similarly, a good trivia question is what was UNCLE in the old TV show “The Man from UNCLE”? It stood for United Network Command for Law and Enforcement.
Former Patriot quarterback Tom Brady has been called a GOAT for Greatest of All Time. You may dispute whether that’s an acronym or backronym, but it’s hard to dispute Tom Brady’s greatness.
