German Words 1939-45

[Fred Shapiro]

On Thu, 1 May 2003, Ray Villegas wrote:

> In reseaching the German word "flak" I found that it is an acronym
> "Flugabwehrkannone"=Air Defense Gun.   I have found that there is another
> spelling for it as well which is "FLiegerAbwehrKanonen." It was used in
> Germany first during WWII, 1926, and then again in 1939.

The 1926 war must have been WW1.5.

> There is another acronym that was popular as well. FUBAR which comes from
> combining foo and bar and was used by the GIs in WWII meaning F.U Beyond
> All Repair.( I will leave the meaning of the first part to the
> imagination).  It is derived from the German word "furchtbar" which means
> terrible. It is considered to be a backronym.

Is there any evidence for the backronymic etymology?

Fred Shapiro

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Fred R. Shapiro                             Editor
Associate Librarian for Collections and     YALE DICTIONARY OF QUOTATIONS
  Access and Lecturer in Legal Research     Yale University Press,
Yale Law School                             forthcoming
e-mail: fred.shapiro at yale.edu               http://quotationdictionary.com
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