another orphan

[Laurence Horn]

At 12:54 PM -0700 9/6/06, Karl Hagen wrote:
>Also note SAT (once "Scholastic Aptitude Test" then "Scholastic
>Assessment Test", now another empty initialism), which the makers are
>now calling the "SAT Reasoning Test" in full. That strikes me as being a
>bit like "El Alamein" or "the hoi polloi", in that the fossilized
>element is reduplicated.

another one I just noticed in news report:  BP (orphaned by British Petroleum)

LH

>Arnold M. Zwicky wrote:
>>  ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>-----------------------
>>  Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>  Poster:       "Arnold M. Zwicky" <zwicky at CSLI.STANFORD.EDU>
>>  Subject:      Re: ex-acronyms
>>
>>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>>  On Sep 6, 2006, at 11:39 AM, Ben Zimmer wrote:
>>
>>>  Further orphan initialisms: KFC, IHOP, ESPN, AARP.
>>>
>>>  The phenomenon is discussed here:
>>>  http://www.slate.com/id/2099747/
>>>  http://snopes.com/horrors/food/kfc.htm
>>
>>  my correspondent cited: AARP, FFA, AAA, AT&T, ACT, NARAL.
>>
>>  arnold
>>
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>
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