recursive acronym n.
A hackish (and especially MIT)
tradition is to choose acronyms/abbreviations that refer humorously
to themselves or to other acronyms/abbreviations. The classic
examples were two MIT editors called EINE ("EINE Is Not EMACS")
and ZWEI ("ZWEI Was EINE Initially"). More recently, there is a
Scheme compiler called LIAR (Liar Imitates Apply Recursively), and
GNU (q.v., sense 1) stands for "GNU's Not Unix!" -- and a
company with the name Cygnus, which expands to "Cygnus, Your GNU
Support" (though Cygnus people say this is a backronym). See
also mung, EMACS.
A hackish (and especially MIT)
tradition is to choose acronyms/abbreviations that refer humorously
to themselves or to other acronyms/abbreviations. The classic
examples were two MIT editors called EINE ("EINE Is Not EMACS")
and ZWEI ("ZWEI Was EINE Initially"). More recently, there is a
Scheme compiler called LIAR (Liar Imitates Apply Recursively), and
GNU (q.v., sense 1) stands for "GNU's Not Unix!" -- and a
company with the name Cygnus, which expands to "Cygnus, Your GNU
Support" (though Cygnus people say this is a backronym). See
also mung, EMACS.
Related:
- recursive acronym:: pl.n. A hackish (and especially MIT) tradition
is to choose acronyms/abbreviations that refer humorously to
themselves or to other acronyms/abbreviations.
The classic examples were two MIT editors called... - EMACS /ee'maks/ n.
[from Editing MACroS] The ne plus
ultra of hacker editors,
a programmable text editor with an entire LISP system... - backronym n.
[portmanteau of back + acronym] A word
interpreted as an acronym that was not originally so intended.
This is a special case of what linguists call `back... - GNU /gnoo/, not /noo/
1. [acronym: `GNU's Not
Unix!',
see recursive acronym] A Unix-workalike development... - GNU: /gnoo/, *not* /noo/ 1. [acronym: `GNU's Not UNIX!',
see {{recursive acronym}}] A UNIX-workalike development... - Emacs --
the choice of a GNU generation... - GNUMACS /gnoo'maks/ n.
[contraction of `GNU EMACS']
Often-heard abbreviated name for the GNU project's flagship
tool,
EMACS. Used esp. in contrast with GOSMACS... - YA- abbrev.
[Yet Another] In hackish acronyms this almost
invariably expands to Yet Another,
following the precedent set by Unix yacc(1) (Yet... - YA-: [Yet Another] abbrev. In hackish acronyms this almost
invariably expands to {Yet Another},
following the precedent set by UNIX `yacc(1)' (Yet...
