n. An acronym that refers to itself, usually by incorporating the acronym as the first word in the expanded phrase.
1996
Dear Sir, Since I see a side-bar on recursive acronyms (October EXE p. 34), it occurs to me that your readers may enjoy the following, which I modestly offer as the ultimate: TIARA (TIARA is a recursive acronym).
1986 (earliest)
Mark of the Unicorn, the program's publisher, sold it in the form of an editor named MINCE (a recursive acronym for 'MINCE Is Not Complete EMACS') and a print formatter called Scribble.
Recursive acronyms are found almost exclusively in computing circles. Here are some examples:
WINE (Wine Is Not an Emulator)
GNU (GNU's Not Unix!)
EINE (EINE Is Not EMACS)
ZWEI (ZWEI Was EINE Initially)
EMACS (EMACS Makes A Computer Slow)
A "real world" example is VISA (VISA International Service Association).
WINE (Wine Is Not an Emulator)
GNU (GNU's Not Unix!)
EINE (EINE Is Not EMACS)
ZWEI (ZWEI Was EINE Initially)
EMACS (EMACS Makes A Computer Slow)
A "real world" example is VISA (VISA International Service Association).