24. True acronyms vs initialisms

If the letters which make up an acronym are individually pronounced such acronyms are called initialisms. (E.g.: BBC - British Broadcasting Company, SOS – save our souls (a wireless code-signal of extreme distress), TV, B.C., I. Q., OK.

It was during the first administration of Roosevelt and during WW2 that the fashion for acronyms and initialisms really got moving. (E.g.: GIs – general issues, GP – general purpose, UFO).

Roosevelt created many new government adjectives, most of them were refereed to by initialisms (E.g.: WPA - Works Progress Administration, FTC – Federal Trade Commission). So, the practice became respectable and started a trend that is now enormously productive in all areas of life (E.g.: IRS – Internal Revenue Service, DMV – Division of Motor Vehicles (the driver’s license), NBC – National Broadcasting Company, ABC – American Broadcasting Company).

But it would be unfair any longer to think of it as a trend of America (E.g.: ICA – Institute of Contemporary Art)

In more recent time the proliferation of initialisms and acronyms has been much increased by the ubiquity of computer abbreviations (E.g.: DRAM dynamic random access memory, CPU – central processing unit).

25. Reverse acronyms

The creation starts with choosing a word people want as their name, and then they work. AIM – American Indian movement, HOPE – health opportunity for people everywhere, PUSH – people united to serve humanity.

This reverse acronym has instant appeal and easy to resemble. Another wide spread phenomena is an acronym based simply on some popular phrase. People can produce acronym or initialism from any common phrase and from just about any stream of words. Most of them are used only within a business or a shop. A popular restaurant chain of the USA (west coast) is called TGIF – Thanks God it’s Friday. FYI – for your information. Call me asap – as soon as possible. DEWMS – individuals are referred to as dead European wide meals.

26. Eponyms

Eponyms (epi – upon, onoma – name) are words based on names. All eponyms necessarily involve some degree of change in the meaning of the word. (e.g.: watt – a unit of electrical power and not the individual who invented the steam engine). The number of new words of this type (in biology, physics, medicine) is very large, since new discoveries are often named for their discoverers.

1). Eponyms based on personal names: cardigan – Earl of Cardigan, the 19^th century, a style of waste coat; nicotine – Jacque Nicot introduced tobacco into France in 1560.

2). based on geographical names: jean – Genoa (from Italian City Genoa where it was first made); port – oporto (the chief port for exporting wine from Portugal.

3). based on names from literature, mythology. Chimera – a mythological Greek monster purely a creature of imagination.

4). based on commercial trade names. Xerox – to copy by any dry process.