Governments are really good at making them up so that they are pronouncible but carry no meaning other than identification: e.g.
- NOFEAR (National Organisation for European American Rights)
- NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation),
- CSIRO, pronounced 'sigh-row' (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation),
- ASIO (Australian Security Intelligence Organisation),
- and apparently about 3,000,000 others.
Geez, I've even done it myself with BRFSStrategic - Big Red Flying Squirrel. You'd think I'd know better!
But consider when an acronym can become a useful metaphor full of meaning:-
NESST - National Executive Strategic Sustainability Team - the idea being that this top-level team was to be a nest to nurture various initiatives.
CAST - Change Agent Support Team - for a team responsible for implementing change, the acronym made it clear that the team members were the cast who were the main players in any effort, not just directing but actively participating.
NeWT - New World Training - for a training program designed to give participants awareness and tools to manage their own culture. Quite apt, because a newt is an animal capable of regenerating lost limbs.
What I found really fascinating was that the culture in each of these cases was 'robust' enough to tolerate some digs at these acronyms.
For example, one wag described NESST as a place for those who were feathering their own! CAST was quickly referred to in some quarters as CAST-AWAY. NeWT left some people wondering what parts needed regeneration.
These sort of meaningful acronyms tell a story of their own, and give people some way of judging when they are no longer apt acronyms but only anachronisms (sound pretty close don't they?), which could indicate it's time to change, give them up and do something else.
Do you have any favourite acronyms???
addendum 24/11/2006: there's a lovely post about acronmyms by John Maeda here.
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