reverse acronyming

[Drew Danielson]

To glom onto this topic:  how about acronyms that are used as
back-formed mnemonic devices, with an relationship in meaning between
the 'acronym' and the phrase it 'represents'?

The examples on the Bacronym page appear to be arbitrary words not
directly related to the concept at hand (unless there is an in-group
meaning to the acronymed words that is not apparent to an outsider).

I would think that the example that Prof. Johnson presents is one of
these.  Others (current among certain discourse communities) might
include GOD="good orderly direction", or EGO="everybody's got one".

Has there been any past discussion (within this list, or not) on this
phenomenon?


Paul McFedries wrote:
>
> I believe the word you're looking for is "bacronym":
>
> http://www.logophilia.com/WordSpy/bacronym.html
>
> Paul
>
> > what do you call a phrase that is made-up from the letters of a word,
> > sometimes as a folk etymology?  a student wrote as an example of acronym
> > TEAM, Together Everyone Achieves More.  Is there a name for this?