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In linguistics, an apronym is a word which as an acronym or backronym has a meaning related to the meaning of the words constituting the acronym or backronym. For example, the acronym for seasonal affective disorder, SAD, reflects the actual meaning of the term, which refers to sadness or depression caused by the typical characteristics of winter (lack of light, cloudiness, rain, etc.). Homonyms of a word may also be used to form apronyms.
Apronyms are a form of word play and may be created for serious purposes or for amusement. Most apronyms are backronyms (ie. reverse or back-formed acronyms), in the sense that they are created from an existing word, or a homophone thereof.
The word "apronym" is a portmanteau of "apropos acronym" and/or "appropriate acronym" and was coined on the Acronyms Forum in 2003.
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Purposes
Apronyms are created for several purposes.
Serious purposes such as the name of an organisation or programme. In such cases usually the apronym and its expanded term are chosen together for their aptness to the thing being named. See the example of SAD in the introduction.
In marketing and public relations, as a method of influencing public thought. Examples abound in the names of medical and industry lobby studies, such as "CHEERS", the chemical industry's Children's Environmental Exposure Research Study. Apronyms have also been appearing in government legislation, such as the USA PATRIOT Act (Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism) and the FAIR Act (Fairness in Asbestos Injury Resolution Act)
As amusement where the objective is the clever and inventive use of words rather than practical or sensible expanded terms. Irishman Tony McCoy O'Grady and others have created thousands of them as word play on the apronyms.com website. For example, infinity - Increment Numbers Forever - It's Nuts, I Tell You!
Related to the previous is the amusement of creating jocular, and often also derogatory, terms from names of brands, companies, organisations etc. For example, NASCAR - Non-Athletic Sport Centered Around Rednecks, or NASA - Need Another Seven Astronauts (after the 1986 crash of the Challenger Space Shuttle).
Apronyms which are not back-formed are usually unintended apronyms.
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Some apronyms
AGE - Advanced glycation endproducts, an apronym which combines the fact of glycosylation of long-lived proteins, e.g. in connective tissue, as well as the accumulation of irreversibly changed proteins with age.
BAD - Bank Account Transaction Tax in the Australian taxation system.
CREDIT - Court-Referred Education, Drug Intervention and Treatment, credit given towards completion of the course.
MACHO - Massive compact halo object, a macho (big and strong) hypothetical particle in physics. This may also be a backronym, chosen to contrast to the WIMP theory (see below), as one of the other main candidates for "cold dark matter".
NACE - No a Conducir Ebrio, or (Say) No! to Drunk Driving; a Mexican association whose full name explains its mission and whose acronym actually means "to be born" in Spanish.
SADD - Students Against Destructive Decisions (an example of an apronym which is a homophone).
SAFER Barrier - Steel and Foam Energy Reduction, a safety barrier used in auto racing, primarily in the Indy Racing League and NASCAR. Playing on the fact that it is intended to make racing accidents safer.
SHAG - Sexual Health Awareness Group, playing on the slang shag for sexual intercourse.
WPPSS - Washington Public Power Supply System (a project that is still tied to the moniker Whoops when plans to build nuclear power plants in Washington state collapsed in the 1980s).
Another example of a non-English-language apronym is HAMAS, which is the acronym for Harakat al-Muqawamah al-Islamiyyah, and Arabic for "Islamic Resistance Movement"; "hamas" is the Arabic word for "zeal".
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Humorous apronyms
In some cases, the names of existing entities are targets for subtle changes to obtain a more apt or amusing acronym.
These often are schools, such as:
or the nearly-named:
City University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK (CUNT)
Other humorous apronyms:
The same approach may however create names for programmes or administrations which form distasteful or inappropriate apronyms, such as Retire Aged Personnel Early.
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Backronyms
And a few which are backronyms:
APRONYM - A Petite Reminder (Openers Notation) Yields Mnemonic
INFINITY - Increment Numbers Forever - It's Nuts, I Tell You!
IRELAND - Independent Republic, English Lodgers Are Nearly Dislodged!
FUDGE - Freeform Universal Do-it-Yourself Gaming Engine
USA PATRIOT - Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism
WINSTON - We Indians Never Salute To Other Nations
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