[Ads-l] Acronym of the year? CBS / WBS / IWBTG

[Baker, John]

That one's particularly obnoxious, because the formal name of the statute (Public Law 107-56) is the "Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism (USA PATRIOT ACT) Act of 2001."  The drafters were so pleased with the acronym, and so determined that it not be overlooked, that they actually made it part of the name.

John Baker


-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of Laurence Horn
Sent: Sunday, April 2, 2017 10:06 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: Acronym of the year? CBS / WBS / IWBTG

Just your standard garden-variety backronym, no worse than the PATRIOT act (officially the "Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001”.  

LH

> On Apr 2, 2017, at 10:00 AM, W Brewer <brewerwa at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
> 
> More contortionym than acronym.
> 
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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org