WOTY Nomination: Captcha

[Mark A Mandel]

Darn, I thought I'd sent this a couple days ago.

On Sat, 28 Dec 2002, Grant Barrett wrote:

#This WOTY nomination is a late entry, coming into common usage only
#recently: captcha. A captcha distinguishes a human from a machine.
#Usually these devices are used to prevent repeated automated logins to
#web sites, such as free email services, which might be abused by
#spammers or others of ill intent.
#
#One mention:
#
#http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/28694.html
#
#The word is supposedly an acronym for Completely Automated Public
#Turing tests to tell Computers and Humans Apart).

Sounds like a bac(k)ronym to me.

-- Mark A. Mandel