Fun with acronyms
A show of hands: How many know what POTUS means? The political junkies among you are no doubt proudly shouting: “President of the United States!”
And SCOTUS? Supreme Court of the United States.
There’s even FLOTUS, for the first lady, and SLOTUS, for the wife of the vice president. (The so-called second lady) The veep, of course, is V-POTUS.
All of this got me wondering and musing. First the wondering, which led me to a Web expedition in search of fun facts:
“SCOTUS” was first noted in print in a handbook of telegrapher’s abbreviations in 1879. “POTUS” didn’t show up in the code until 1925.
The original Phillips Code, as it was called, had all manner of abbreviations, including SOW for Secretary of War. Today that position is the Secretary of Defense, but I would advise staying away from SODUS, as “sod” gets you in trouble in some English-speaking lands.
A more recent addition to the –OTUS lexicon is TOTUS: Teleprompter of the United States. (With all these rhyming words, there must be a limerick in there, somewhere.)
Now to the musing, in which you’re invited to join: Why don’t we extend this acronym fun to the Badger State?
My alma mater, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, could be UOWM, which appropriately in these days of tuition increases and skyrocketing student debt could be pronounced, “you owe ’em.” (Full disclosure, I’m participating in this debt-expansion scheme for my son’s education.)
The governor could be GOSOW, for Governor of the State of Wisconsin. Or just GOW, but the pronunciation isn’t as much fun.
How about MOCOM, Mayor of the City of Madison, just MOM, for Mayor of Madison.
The Editor of the Gazette might be EOG, but then how do you pronounce it? An acronym is no good unless it has an easy pronunciation.
Now it’s your turn. What acronyms would you suggest? Keep it clean, but by all means feel free to be funny.
Oct 1, 2012 at 5:52 p.m.
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Yes, janesvilliean. I think "constable on patrol" (cop) is of the same kind.
Badger, I think Jeep comes from an initialism with a letter change and letter additions: GP (General Purpose military vehicle) GP pronounced Jeep, probably to avoid the sound Geep or Gheep).
Oct 1, 2012 at 8:34 a.m.
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Not a lot of useful or elegant acronyms so far. I do agree with Janesvillean that JTS for Janesville Transit System is silly. Seems like everything has to be a system these days. I wonder if some people are actually impressed by fancy names for simple things. Does calling it a Beard Eradication System make it better than a razor? --The Badger
Sep 30, 2012 at 9:46 a.m.
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FLAAO= Freedom Loving American's Against Obama
Sep 29, 2012 at 6:17 p.m.
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Special High Intensity Training
Sep 28, 2012 at 7:13 p.m.
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DAM...........Mothers Against Dyslexia
Sep 28, 2012 at 6:28 p.m.
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Moron in Terrible Trouble!
Sep 28, 2012 at 3:27 p.m.
Sep 28, 2012 at 11:37 a.m.
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Today is Friday. Almost everyone is familiar with the acronym TGIF. However, when I was young and working at Generous Motors I was paid on Thursday night. I was familiarized with expressions like "It's time for the Old Eagle to _ _ _ _." But a better replacement was an acronym that really expressed what I thought and felt about Thursday. The acronym was for "Sure Happy It's Thursday," really summing up what most workers were thinking. Strangely, I didn't feel offended by the vulgar expression but more amused. I often wonder if today's language police are any different than they were in the old days. As masters of modern language, are we more accepting, less moral and more liberal? I also wonder if changes in language usage affects change in the modern political dialogue. As Churchill once observed, are we being "separated by a common language"? Is commonness the problem? What do you think?
Sep 28, 2012 at 9:56 a.m.
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So far this morning the US Ryder Cup Team is certainly not practicing the KISS principle. Over analysis can mean total paralysis on the golf course. Keep It Simple Stupid
Sep 27, 2012 at 7:44 p.m.
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BJ Express
Sep 27, 2012 at 6:07 p.m.
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The Secretary of Defense is SECDEF, one of numerous Pentagon-style abbreviations, which are often not initialisms at all. (See also: CENTCOM, CINCPACFLT, etc.).
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gazettefan -- that's what's called a folk etymology (e.g. the similar "backronym" for posh, falsely believed to be an abbreviation for "port out, starboard home"). Probably because of its offensive associations, the other related words from Old English have completely vanished, and so speakers of modern English have nothing from which to derive the meaning of that word. This leads to fanciful interpretations as you note.
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I think we have few acronyms around here because "J" doesn't work into that many words. You do see COJ (City of Janesville) and of course you guys have Gazlo. The Hough Shade Manufacturing Corp. became HUFCOR. There's the problematic abbreviation RCHS, which first belonged to the Rock County Historical Society, but is more commonly used for the Rock County Humane Society now.
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If anything, there are some abbreviations I might discard. Not sure anybody but official publications uses "JTS" for Janesville Transit System. What about the BowerBus (to recall that we were -- at least once -- the Bower City)?
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Again, the J problem might explain why we have so few acronyms for city "things" -- the chamber of commerce calls itself Forward Janesville, for example, and there's also Rock County 5.0 (although not even I can remember what the 5.0 actually means, at least it's unique). I guess it beats Southern Wisconsin Regional Airport, which is a mouthful.
Sep 27, 2012 at 1 p.m.
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kitten, don't you mean: see you next Thursday? I don't think that's an acronym, though.
Sep 27, 2012 at 12:35 p.m.
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FUBAR was always my favorite I even got away with writing that on an inspection report for a piece of equipment that CDATs broke. The Army- as well as the other branches have plenty of good ones that have made their way into general useage.
Sep 27, 2012 at 11:44 a.m.
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So Happy It's Thursday!
Sep 27, 2012 at 8:29 a.m.
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I should have said that the false belief that "fornication under the consent of the King" created a much used acronym means that that "acronym" is not an acronym at all.
Sep 27, 2012 at 8:24 a.m.
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Ship High In Transit
Sep 27, 2012 at 8:21 a.m.
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"Fornication under the consent of the King" falsely created a much used acronym, which of course means it isn't an acronym at all.
Sep 27, 2012 at 8:15 a.m.
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kmag yoyo
Sep 27, 2012 at 7:21 a.m.
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