"Crazy" said:
"Zombie" said: Well an acronym is a word where each letter stands for an individual word in a phrase... So a cronym would be... Uhh... a phrase where the first letters of each word form a word... Like in some military branches they'll turn the call letters of aircraft into words. Like "Tango Whiskey Charlie Four Nine Five" would be "TWF-495" or somesuch.
A backronym is an acronym where where the word makes the phrase, as apposed to the phrase making the word. Like LOL. LOL is an acronym for "Laughing Out Loud." If I say LOL means "Lie On Leaves" then that is a backronym because the phrase was not initially used to make the word. :3 You just said one and the same thing.
But in the english language there also exists the phrase "Grammar beats logic", so... Agh. Thanks for noticing, Crazy. I typoed big time on the start of that second paragraph... It's supposed to say, "A backronym is an acronym where the phrase was made to match the word, as opposed to the word being defined by the phrase."
If you pay attention, that is somewhat different from what a... err... "cronym" would be. In a backronym the phrase is made using the letters of the word to match the usage of the word. "Cronyms" can make sense as well but are not specifically related to the word or its usage.
Like if a fighter jet had the call sign TBS-599 they could say "Tasty Bacon Sandwiches 599" as their "cronym." It makes sense, but does not relate at all to the word.
On the other hand, in the example of WOOT meaning "We Own Opposing Team," the phrase makes sense. It was made to further define the word like acronyms are made to give a long concept a single word, hence WOOT is a backronym in this case.
Sorry about that little snafu. I didn't fubar it too much, I hope.
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