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Acronymic aptness. Posted by Tony (maxiogee@esatclear.ie) on 12 December 2000 10:11:13 NZST

The title is an entry in Brewer's Dictionary of Modern Phrase and Fable, a book I treated myself to with a recent book-token. The book aims to update the original idea by Dr E Cobham Brewer, who listed the origins and allusions behind many wellknown phrases. Anyway - the new book has an entry "Acronymic aptness" and the text runs as follows:- ===== A tendency arose in the 20th century for the names of certain organizations , movements, charities and so on to spell out a meaningful or punning acronym rather than simply a meaningless word. The following are some examples current at the end of the century: ADAPT: Access for Disabled People to Art Today CAMPFIRE:Communal Area Management Programmes For Industrial Resources CHIME: Churches' Initiative in Musical Education EUREKA: European Research Cooperation Agency FOCUS: Financial Outstation Central Unified System HOLMES: Home Office Large Major Enquiry System (a police computer) SEALS: Sea, Air and Land Service SERENDIP: Search for Extraterrestrial Radio Emissions from Nearby Developed Intelligent Populations SMART: Special Measures Action Reform Team STEP: Special Temporary Employment Programme TRACE: test equipment for rapid automatic checkout and evaluation Equally creative are the humorous reinterpretations of acronymic names of airlines, as: Alitalia: always late in take-off, always late in arrival BOAC: better on a camel QANTAS: quite a nice trip, all survived SABENA: such a bloody experience, never again ===== Well, some are alright, but most are absolutely awful. Any comments?

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