reverse acronyming

[George Thompson]

Ellen Johnson has asked "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?"  This produced the reply "I think it's called
an acronym when it spells a word (e.g., NATO) and initialism when it
doesn't (FBI)."

I take the original question as referring to the practice of analyzing
a preexisting word as is it were an acronym for some approriate phrase
fabricated after the fact, as in her example.

There is also the practice of contriving a tortuous name for an
organization, so that its acronym will be appropriate: Herpetologists
for Endangered Lizards and Pythons, perhaps.

GAT


George A. Thompson
Author of A Documentary History of "The African
Theatre", Northwestern Univ. Pr., 1998.

----- Original Message -----
From: P2052 at AOL.COM
Date: Wednesday, October 31, 2001 10:19 am
Subject: Re: reverse acronyming

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