SPUD acroetymythology (1927)

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On Thu, 8 Sep 2005 14:21:37 -0400, Benjamin Zimmer wrote:

>On Thu, 8 Sep 2005 06:34:42 -0700, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>
>>It's true; I forgot that one.  But isn't there an enormous gap between
>>"N.E.W.S" and whatever comes next ?  Acronymic thinking, according to ye
>>hoary experts, is supposed to be a product chiefly of the WW I era.
>
>The only other pre-20th-century examples that I know of are FAD ("for a
>day") and TIP ("to insure promptness")...
[snip article from 1895]

Now that I check the archives, I see Sam Clements discussed this article
back in March-- sorry, forgot about that.

Anyway, here's another pre-20c example: WHIG = We Hope In God.

-----
_The Historical Magazine_, Dec. 1858, Vol. 2, p. 364/2
WHIG.-- I copy the following from the _Lawrence (Mass.) Courier_, of
January 8, 1848:
"In the sixteenth century, there arose in England a party opposed to the
king, and in favor of a republican form of government, in which the people
would have a voice. This party adopted as their motto, "We Hope In God,"
the initials or first letter of each word combined, read Whig, and were
used to designate the party. Thus the word Whig originally meant
opposition to kings and monarchies, and friendship for the very form of
government under which we exist. It originated in England a century and a
half before our Revolution."
-----
_The Historical Magazine_, Feb. 1859, Vol. 3, p. 53/2
WHIG (vol. ii. p. 364). ... While my pen is in hand let me protest against
the derivation ascribed to the word in the newspaper clipping from the
_Lawrence Courier_. It belongs to a class of ingenious but illegitimate
etymologies, most of which have been quite thoroughly exposed. The word
"news," once supposed to be formed from the initials of the four cardinal
points, and "cabal," sometimes said to be formed from the initials of five
unpopular statesmen in the time of Charles II., belong in the same
category.
-----

I hadn't mentioned CABAL since I figured it was just considered a
"backronym" along the lines of ICHTHYS (see _Word Myths_, pp. 83-4). But
the reply above suggests that the CABAL acronym might have actually been
taken seriously as an etymology.

Further proof of "acronymic thinking" before the 20th century comes from
_Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable_ (1898), which includes a list of
"notarica" (Brewer's plural of "notarikon"?) that has both acronyms and
backronyms:

-----
http://www.bartleby.com/81/12214.html
A. E. I. O. U. Austria’s Empire Is Over all Universal.
Æra. A. ER. A—i.e. Anno ERat Augusti.
Cabal. Clifford, Ashley, Buckingham, Arlington, Lauderdale.
Clio. Chelsea, London, Islington, Office.
Hempe. “When hempe is spun, England is done.” Henry, Edward, Mary, Philip,
Elizabeth.
Hip! hip! hurrah! Hierosolyma Est Perdita.
Ichthus. Ie’sous CHristos THeou Uios Soter.
I. T. N. O. T. G. A. O. T. U. (It-not-ga-otu)—i.e. In The Name Of The
Great Architect Of The Universe. A Freemason’s notarica.
Koli. King’s Own Light Infantry (the 51st Foot).
Limp. Louis, Iames, Mary, Prince.
Maccabees. Mi Camokah, Baelim Jehovah.
News. North, East, West, South.
Smectym’nuus. Stephen Marshall, Edmund Calamy, Thomas Young, Matthew
Newcomen, Uuilliam Spurstow.
Tory. True Old Royal Yeoman.
Whig. We Hope In God.
Wise. Wales, Ireland, Scotland, England—i.e. Wales, Ireland, and Scotland
added to England.
-----

Most of these also have separate entries in _Brewer's_. Ah, forgot about
HEP, which I mentioned in the March thread on TIP, etc.:
http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0503C&L=ADS-L&P=23178

(Sorry, I've been having a lot of junior-senior moments lately...)


--Ben Zimmer