Acronym

[Alan Baragona]

Is there a technical term for an acronym that people usually no longer recognize as having been derived from intials (most obviously "laser")?  When a word like "hlafweard" becomes "lauerd" and then "lord" and is no longer recognized as a compound, we call it an amalgamated compound, so is there any equivalent term for acronyms that have gone through an analogous process of what you might call "loss of etymology recognition"?

Alan Baragona

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