Recursive acronym

A recursive acronym is an acronym (or occasionally, a backronym) which refers to itself in the expression for which it stands, similar to a recursive abbreviation. Though, because of their lack of a termination condition, perhaps a more accurate term would be circular acronym.

Computer-related examples

In computing, it soon became a hackish (and especially MIT) tradition to choose acronyms and abbreviations which referred humorously to themselves or to other abbreviations. Perhaps the earliest example in this context, from about 1977 or 1978, is TINT ("TINT Is Not TECO"), an editor for MagicSix. This inspired the two MIT Lisp Machine editors called EINE ("EINE Is Not Emacs") and ZWEI ("ZWEI Was EINE Initially"). (Note that in German "eine" means "one", in the feminine form, and "zwei" means "two".)

More recent efforts include:

Allegro — Allegro Low LEvel Game ROutines
CAVE — Cave Automatic Virtual Environment
Cygnus — Cygnus, Your GNU Support (Cygnus says "Cygnus, Your GNU Sucks" is a backronym despite claims to the contrary)
Emacs - Emacs Makes All Computing Simple (one of many acronyms)
GEECS - GEECS for Electronics Engineering Computers and Science
giFT — giFT: Internet File Transfer, unofficially: "giFT Isn't FastTrack"
GiNaC — GiNaC is Not a CAS
GNE — GNE is Not an Encyclopedia
GNU — GNU's Not Unix
Hurd - "HIRD of Unix-Replacing Daemons" where "HIRD" stands for "HURD of Interfaces Representing Depth".
KIEL — Kiel Integrated Environment for Layout
LAME — LAME Ain't an MP3 Encoder
LIAR, a Scheme compiler — LIAR Imitates Apply Recursively
LINE - LINE is Not an Emulator, a utility to run Linux programs on Windows
MICO — MICO Is COrba
MINC — MINC Is Not C
MINCE — MINCE is Not Complete Emacs
MiNT — MiNT is Not TOS (later changed to "MiNT is Now TOS")
MINT - MINT Is Not TRAC
mung — Mung Until No Good (backronym, based on an earlier backronym "Mash Until No Good")
Nagios — Nagios Ain't Gonna Insist On Sainthood
NiL — NiL Isn't Liero
PHP — PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor (another backronym - originated as "Personal Home Page" tools)
PLD — PLD Linux Distribution (originally "Polish(ed) Linux Distribution")
PNG — PNG is Not GIF (another backronym - originated as "Portable Network Graphic")
RPM — RPM Package Manager (originally "Red Hat Package Manager")
Scaled — Scaled Composites: Advanced Link to Efficient Development
SPARQL — SPARQL Protocol And RDF Query Language
TIARA - TIARA Is A Recursive Acronym
TINA — Tina Is No Acronym, or This Is No Acronym
TINN — Tinn Is Not Notepad
TRM — TRM Recognizes Music
TTP — The TTP Project (from Dilbert)
Wine — Wine Is Not an Emulator (or unofficially WINdows Emulator)
XINU — Xinu Is Not Unix
YAML — YAML Ain't Markup Language (initially "Yet Another Markup Language")
Zinf — Zinf Is Not FreeA*p!

The GNU Hurd project is named with a mutually recursive acronym: "GNU" stands for "GNU is Not Unix", "Hurd" stands for "Hird of Unix-Replacing Daemons," and "Hird" stands for "Hurd of Interfaces Representing Depth."

Recursive acronyms appeared in a Dilbert comic strip, in which Dilbert states that the TTP project refers to The TTP Project (this is also a triply-redundant case of RAS syndrome).

A number of recursive acronyms are backronyms, which used to expand to a different string but whose expansion changed once the acronym was well-known, for one reason or another, to one which included the acronym itself. This includes at least PHP and RPM.

Other variations on this theme can be found in the following phrases from the electronics industry...

LCD Display - Liquid Crystal Display Display
IDC Connector - Insulation Displacement Connector Connector

Non-technical examples

Recursive acronyms are not limited to computing terminology. For example, some corporations have been named or renamed in this way:

BWIA — BWIA West Indian Airways (formerly British West Indian Airways)
OIL -Oil India Limited
RESPECT - Respect, Equality, Socialism, Peace, Environmentalism, Community, and Trade unionism (also a backronym)
TAP Airlines — TAP Air Portugal (in Portuguese, TAP is acronym to Transportes Aéreos de Portugal and is not recursive)
VISA — Visa International Service Association

There are also some organizations that employ recursive acronyms:

MOMS Club — MOMS Offering Moms Support

Recursive Powers of LISP

Recursive acronyms have been known to be used as examples to demonstrate the recursive powers of LISP. For example, Douglas Hofstadter uses tato in several of his articles from his Metamagical Themas.

By substituting the phrase 'tato (and tato only)' for every occurrence of tato, you end up with:

n=0: tato
n=1: tato (and tato only)
n=2: tato (and tato only) (and tato (and tato only) only)
n=3: tato (and tato only) (and tato (and tato only) only) (and tato (and tato only) (and tato (and tato only) only) only)

etc.

Computer-related examples

Non-technical examples

Recursive Powers of LISP

References

See also

Gourt Home::Gourt :: Recursive acronym

Computer-related examples

Non-technical examples

Recursive Powers of LISP

References

See also