Anacronym

1. An acronym created by a small, isolated group with the intent of increasing the celerity of text-based communication. Such an acronym suffers from the same problems as and can include workspace jargon. Anacronyms commonly, but not always result from putting two or more of the following types of people in a chatroom: computer programmers, MMORPG players (case in point), pre-pubescent females, GI's, and/or slow typists.

The irony of such an acronym demonstrates itself because of the acronym's tendency towards the specific and arcane. Namely, an individual desensitized to the use of the acronym (not exceedingly dissimilar to the individual who no longer notices his/her own swearing) will attempt to use the acronym in a textual conversation with an individual not familiar with the group of individuals or the acronym in question. This invariably leads to a message of one or more marks of interrogative punctuation by the uninformed party. Taking the time to explain the meaning of the letter sequence, the informed party defeats the intended purpose of the acronym by possibly increasing the length of text sent by upwards of four lines.

2. A usually nonverbalized acronym which has been verbalized. This is considered a taboo in most situations. The individuals to whom the offending party has "anacronyzed" will most likely look incredulously at the offender.

3. A completely unnecessary acronym. Almost every acronym in this third definition pertains to the first definition.

4. A misused acronym.

1. The following is a textual conversation:

Friend A: So then I jumped off of the roof!

Friend B: WAYTTP?

Friend A: ?????????????

Friend B: What Are You Trying To Prove?

Friend A: Well, why didn't you just say that to begin with?

Friend B: I thought you knew that one.

Friend A: I don't play Counter Strike. Way to use an anacronym.

Friend B: Oh. Sorry.

2. The following is a nontextual conversation:

Friend A: TTYL

Friend B: *Incredulous stare for three to five seconds* Did you just use an anacronym?

Friend A: What?

3. KMAG YO-YO. Kiss My Ass Guys, You're On Your Own

Amusing, but useless.

4. The following conversation is textual:

Lover A: Do you want to go to the dance/ice cream social/moon with me?

Lover B: WTF?

Lover A: That caustic reply has caused me to mutilate myself/be emotionally scarred for life/commit suicide.

Lover B: Why did you overreact so much/decide to text me that you have killed yourself/not know that WTF means Why That sounds Fantastic?

The following is assumed:

Lover A can not come to their computer now because they are cutting their wrists/crying in a corner/dead.

by Green A Gzenham July 11, 2009

anacronym

an expression consisting of words shown in full, not as an acronym.

'United States of America' is an anacronym for the acronym 'USA'.

by uttam maharjan June 2, 2010

Unfortunate Acronym

An unfortunate Acronym is an acronym for an organisation or person that results in a word that is rude, disgusting or totally inappropriate. A typical example would be the Country and Urban Nature Trail Society which was intended to promote pleasant nature walks in both the town and countryside. It never got off the ground because the acronym was CUNTS. Another British example is Radical Alternatives to Prison, a bunch of bleeding hearts who want to abolish prisons. They were originally going to be called Completely Radical Alternatives to Prison – CRAP, but decided against this, perhaps it was too close to the truth about their ideas.
One unfortunate acronym which is still currently used is TWAT which stands for The War Against Terrorism, while from the United States comes FLOTUS which identifies the President’s wife and stands for First Lady Of The United States. It’s an unfortunate acronym in that it sounds as if it is something unpleasant lurking in a toilet bowl. I suppose they could try removing some of the unimportant letters, but FLOUS and FLUS don’t sound much better.

“Is it true that Nicola Sturgeon, leader of the Scottish Nationalist Party, is going to set up a new organisation, Scottish Nationalists Opposed to Tories?”
“SNOT! There’s an unfortunate acronym!”

by AKACroatalin May 21, 2015

Reverse Acronym

Acronyms are abbreviations that are formed using the initial components in a phrase or name. A Reverse Acronym is when the initial word is broken into an acronym for humorous purposes.

Reverse Acronyms:
Fuck = For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge.
Fart = Frequently Activated Rectal Tremble.
Etc., etc.

by keifermail June 29, 2009

Posttraumatic Acronym Disorder

A psychological disorder emanating from continuous exposure to absurd and meaningless, sometimes indecipherable, acronyms such as what happens when you’ve worked for years in a civil service job such as the post office, politics, or a state prison.

I wasn’t even sure what PTAD was due to this sad and disabling condition called Posttraumatic Acronym Disorder!

by Dr Bunnygirl July 5, 2020

anticronym

Another name for "RAS syndrome" (short for Redundant Acronym Syndrome syndrome) -- redundantly using a word in connection with an acronym or initialism that already contains the word. "ATM machine" is an example: the phrase literally refers to an "Automatic Teller Machine machine".

Enter your PIN number when the ATM machine prompts for it on the LCD display.
(That sentence contains several anticronyms.)

by Grinning Cat January 6, 2015

Acronymlish

The English language reduced to acronyms. Mostly used in online instant messaging and cell phone text messaging, however Acronymlish is starting to invade verbal speech as well. For example how often do you hear people say "WTF" or "FML" or "GDMFer!". These are all examples of Acronymlish. My prediction is soon this new condensed version of the English language will replace our current way of speaking.

dude 1: "OMFG! WTF?? STFU!! GTFO!"

dude 2: "Quit talking in Acronymlish, you sound like a fucking retard."

by Rellik Uzi September 18, 2010