When an abbreviation or an acronym is deliberately expanded in a way not originally meant to be, such expansions are known as bacronyms. Bacronyms (also spelt as backronyms) are used to discredit or praise someone or some organization, to express anger, frustration, or just to have fun.
For instance, PHD (Doctor of Philosophy) is deliberately, for fun of course, expanded as Passed with High Difficulty. Dissatisfied travellers of ALITALIA Airlines expanded ALITALIA as Always Late In Travel, Always Late In Arrival. LG (Lucky Goldstar, the manufacturer of electronic goods), for its marketing purposes, started expanding LG as Life’s Good.
We have ever so many bacronyms of different kinds. Could the readers do some research on bacronyms or even create their own bacronyms and send us a list of the same? While creating your own bacronyms, please take care not to hurt someone’s feelings, religious sentiments, etc. Let the bacronyms not be in bad taste.
Now, coming to the guidelines regarding the use of abbreviations:
Whatever be the nature of the abbreviations, care should be taken
to write the full form, for the first time, along with the abbreviations in brackets. Thereafter, the abbreviations can be used, as the readers would be familiar with the same. The only exception is with universally-accepted abbreviations in the nature of an instruction (PTO for Please Turn Over), formula (H2O for water), or technology (SMS for short message service), etc.
Many newspapers and magazines commit error on two counts. One, they either don’t expand the abbreviations at all, or expand the same partially. For example, PHDCCI is expanded as PHD
Just be proud of your teacher
Teaching is one profession that creates all other professions - Author unknown
Chamber of Commerce and Industry. But, what is PHD? While well-known abbreviations like USA are expanded, abbreviations like KLM (airlines), KGB (Soviet spy service) are left unexpanded. Probably, many do not know the often-used, rarelyexpanded abbreviation GOP.
It has been observed that some newspapers create their own abbreviations, even when well-known (and even patented) abbreviations are available. Karnataka Leather Industries Development Corporation Limited is popular as LIDKAR and not as KLIDC as created by a national newspaper.
Readers are welcome to contribute their take on abbreviations.
Just keep trying
Mistakes are proof that you are trying.
- Author unknown
Redundancy is the use of more than one word, and all words having almost same meaning. Many writers, very often, commit this mistake. This is known as tautology, derived from tauto (same) and legein (to say).
Examples are plenty.
(A person becomes a hostage only after he is seized. You cannot seize a person who is already seized, unless it so happens that second kidnapper seizes the hostage held by the first kidnapper.)
Ex, former, and was are all indications of something in the past.
Readers, start rummaging through newspapers and magazines. Send us such redundancies.
Just know
Education is an ornament in prosperity and a refuge in adversity.
-Aristotle