[Ads-l] A bacronym named Steve

Laurence Horn laurence.horn at YALE.EDU
Wed Mar 21 00:39:27 UTC 2018


Or should that be STEVE?

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/15/science/steve-canada-aurora-borealis.html

Start with the beautiful photo of the "aurora borealis-like phenomenon” over Manitoba and the caption stating 
"It has been given the name Steve, for Strong Thermal Emission Velocity Enhancement"

…and then read the article, where you'll see that the caption in fact is highly misleading.  

Interesting that the piece barely defines “bacronym” and doesn’t provide a history or any other examples of the practice, not even WAVES or SCUM.  Is the bacronym (or backronym; I’m never quite sure) really that well established?  

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



More information about the Ads-l mailing list