An apronym is an acronym or backronym which is also a real word - or a homophone for a real word - meaning something relevant to the expanded term it stands for. SAD (Seasonal affective disorder) and SHAG (Sexual Health Awareness Group) is a real-word example and SADD (Students Against Destructive Decisions) is a homophone example. The word "apronym" comes from a portmanteau of "apropos acronym" and/or "appropriate acronym" and was coined on the Acronyms Forum in 2003.

Apronyms are a form of word play and may be created for serious purposes or for amusement. Most apronyms are backronyms (reverse or back-formed acronyms) in the sense that they are created from a existing word (or a homophone for one).

Purposes

Apronyms are created for several purposes.

1. Serious purposes such as the name of an organisation or programme. In such cases usually the apronym and its expanded term are chosen together for their aptness to the thing being named. See the examples of SAD and SADD in the introduction.

2. As mnemonic terms for difficult-to-spell words. For example, the recursive acronym for rhythm - Rhythm Has Your Two Hips Moving.

3. As amusement where the objective is the clever and inventive use of words rather than practical or sensible expanded terms. Irishman Tony McCoy O'Grady and others have created thousands of them as word play on the apronyms.com website. For example, infinity - Increment Numbers Forever - It's Nuts, I Tell You!

4. Related to the previous is the amusement of creating jocular, and often also derogatory, terms from names of brands, companies, organisations etc. For example, Ford – Fix Or Repair Daily.

Apronyms which are not back-formed are usually unintended apronyms.

Some apronyms

• BASIC - Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code, a very basic computer programming language
• BRIT - British Record Industry Trust , organisers of the Brit Awards
• CREDIT - Court-Referred Education, Drug Intervention and Treatment, credit given towards completion of the course
• DARE - Drug Abuse Resistance Education
• HERO - Highway Emergency Response Operator, a hero to a stranded motorist
• HOPE - a lottery scholarship for "helping outstanding pupils educationally", giving them hope for a college education
• MADD - Mothers Against Drunk Driving, mad (angry) about drunk driving
• SAD - Seasonal affective disorder, a form of clinical depression making people sad during cold, dark winter days
• SHAG - (Sexual Health Awareness Group)
• SLAPP - strategic lawsuit against public participation, a slap at whistleblowers

One example of a foreign-language apronym is HAMAS - Harakat al-Muqawamah al-Islamiyyah (Arabic for "Islamic Resistance Movement") "Hamas" is the Arabic word for Zeal.

Humourous apronyms

In some cases, the names of existing entities are targets for subtle changes to obtain a more apt or amusing acronym.

These often are schools, such as:

• South Henrietta Institute of Technology near Rochester, New York (SHIT)
• Thousand Islands Technical School in Brockville, Ontario (TITS)
• Amherstview Secondary School in Odessa, Ontario (ASS)

A number of jokes also create programmes or administration named like Retire Aged Personnel Early to yield interesting acronyms.

Backronyms

And a few which are backronyms:

• APRONYM - A Petite Reminder (Openers Notation) Yields Mnemonic
• INFINITY - Increment Numbers Forever - It's Nuts, I Tell You!
• IRELAND - Independent Republic, English Lodgers Are Nearly Dislodged!
• RHYTHM - Rhythm Has Your Two Hips Moving (this one is a recursive acronym as well)

External links

• A large list of apronyms may be found at apronyms.com
• Etymology of apronym