another orphan

[Wilson Gray]

And there are originally-local orphans, such as UCLA and SC. The use
of "SC" instead of "USC" for the University of Southern California may
be peculiar to BE.

I almost cried when I discovered that the A&P was originally the
"Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company."

-Wilson

On 9/9/06, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: another orphan
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> 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
> >>
> >>  ------------------------------------------------------------
> >>  The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >>
> >>
> >
> >------------------------------------------------------------
> >The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>


--
-Wilson
----
Everybody says, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange
complaint to come from the mouths of people who have had to live.

--Sam Clemens

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org