In the World of Nym-words

Ярославский государственный университет им. П.Г.Демидова

Городской центр развития образования

 Муниципальное общеобразовательное учреждение

«Гимназия № 3» г. Ярославля

                                                                      ГОРОДСКАЯ НАУЧНО-ПРАКТИЧЕСКАЯ КОНФЕРЕНЦИЯ ШКОЛЬНИКОВ

НА ИНОСТРАННЫХ ЯЗЫКАХ  «ШАГИ В НАУКУ - 2019»

Backronym

A backronym or bacronym is a reverse acronym. It is made by creating a new phrase to fit an already-existing word, name or acronym. The term ‘backronym’ is a blend of two words ‘backward’ and ‘acronym’. It is also known as ‘apronym’ or ‘reverse acronymy’. The term was created by Meredith G. Williams from Maryland, USA. Among the first backronyms described by her were GEORGE (Georgetown Environmentalists Organization against Rats, Garbage and Emission) and NOISE (Neighbors Opposed to Irritating Sound Emissions). This term was included into Paul Dickson’s book Family words in 1998 which contains words coined by particular individuals.

Backronyms are invented with either serious or humorous goals. Let us look at some examples.

SAD –Seasonal Affective Disorder

MADD – Mothers Against Drunk Driving

GROSS – Get Rid of Slimy Girls

Just imagine that you got an invitation to a small party and an invitation card has an inscription: GOLF. Does it mean that the guests are supposed to play golf? Of course, not. GOLF means Gentlemen Only Ladies Forbidden. It is a party only for men, so don’t bring your girlfriend with you.

Or you can be asked: “Do you know the Bible?” This question is quite common among flying instructors. It doesn’t mean that a person asks you about the knowledge of prayers or Christ’s life or the history of Christianity. BIBLE means Basic Instructions before Leaving the Earth. 

Do you know what a MARINE is? When you hear a ‘marine’ you picture a strong navy man with many good skills and big muscles. But MARINE can also be a backronym meaning “Muscles Are Required Intelligence Not Essential”. This phrase is surely for people of unqualified, manual work. You can easily compare it with the Russian phrase “Сила есть – ума не надо“.

APGAR is a surname. Virginia Apgar (1909 – 1974) is a US anesthesiologist, who developed a method for evaluating the physical condition of a newborn infant. Now the term APGAR score is made a backronym by neonatologists describing such vital physical characteristics as Appearance, Pulse, Grimace, Activity and Respiration.

AMBER Alert is the way of distributing messages about missing children. It was initially named for Amber Hagerman, a nine-year-old girl who was abducted and murdered in Texas in 1996. Now it is a backronym for “America’s Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response”.

Fans of Arthur Conan Doyle organized a society and named it SHERLOCK which is a backronym reading as Sherlock Holmes Enthusiastic Readers’ League of Criminal Knowledge

There is a number of joking acronyms as well:

FIAT (a famous Italian car brand) – Fix It Again Tomorrow. It surely means that cars of this brand get out of order very often.

DELTA (American air company) – Doesn’t Ever Leave the Airport

We have also found some false acronyms:

The well-known distress signal SOS is often thought to stand for the phrase ‘Save Our Ship’ or ‘Save Our Souls’. In fact, it is the simplest Morse code representation of three dots, three dashes, three dots which are sent without any pauses between characters.

WIKI – is derived from a Hawaiian word wiki-wiki meaning ‘fast’ but a lot people around the world consider it to be an acronym for ‘What I Know Is’.

ADIDAS – is the brand name of a company producing sportswear. The company got its name after its founder Adolf Dassler whose short name was ‘Adi’ (Adi+Das).  But many people wrongly believe that ADIDAS means All Day I Dream About Sports.

KISS –

Retronym

The term ‘retronym’ was formed by blending     is a newer name for an existing thing. This word is created to differentiate between the two. 

It is a neologism composed of combining ‘retro’ and –(o)nym. It was coined by Frank Mankiewich and was populatrized by William Safire in 1980 in the New York Times Magazine.

There are two ways of forming retronyms in English: noun +noun and adjective +noun

Bar soap – bath soap

Conventional oven – microwave oven

Cloth diaper – disposable diaper (nappy)

Corn-on-the cob – corn

Face-to-face conference – on-line conference

Vinil disc- compact disc (CD)

Hardcover book – paperback book

Hot chocolate – chocolate

Live music - music

Real reality – virtual reality

Wet signature – digital signature

Satelite – artificial satellite

Classical mechanics – quantum mechanics

Sit-down restaurant – fast-food restaurant

Human computer – computer

Mechanical mouse – optical mouse

Touch dialing – pulse dialing

Tap water – bottled water

Aptronym

Oronym

An oronym is a word or a phrase that sounds very much as another word or phrase often as a result of sounds running together. In fluent speech it is impossible to tell where one word ends and another begins.

An aim – a name

A notion – an ocean

Allowed – aloud

Iced ink – I stink

And, of course, the most well-known example: I scream for ice-cream.

The stuffy nose can lead to problems.

The stuff he knows can lead to problems.

Some others I’ve seen.

Some mothers I’ve seen.

Any grey day would be bad news for one professor I know.

Any grade A would be bad news for one professor I know.

I have known oceans that you yourself couldn’t imagine.

I have no notions that you yourself couldn’t imagine.

A politician’s fate often hangs in a delicate balance.

A politician’s fate often hangs in a delegate balance.

Retronym

The term ‘retronym’ was formed by blending     is a newer name for an existing thing. This word is created to differentiate between the two. 

It is a neologism composed of combining ‘retro’ and –(o)nym. It was coined by Frank Mankiewich and was populatrized by William Safire in 1980 in the New York Times Magazine.

There are two ways of forming retronyms in English: noun +noun and adjective +noun

Bar soap – bath soap

Conventional oven – microwave oven

Cloth diaper – disposable diaper (nappy)

Corn-on-the cob – corn

Face-to-face conference – on-line conference

Vinil disc- compact disc (CD)

Hardcover book – paperback book

Hot chocolate – chocolate

Live music - music

Real reality – virtual reality

Wet signature – digital signature

Satelite – artificial satellite

Classical mechanics – quantum mechanics

Sit-down restaurant – fast-food restaurant

Human computer – computer

Mechanical mouse – optical mouse

Touch dialing – pulse dialing

Tap water – bottled water