origin of ‘Wasp’ (‘white Anglo-Saxon Protestant’)

2nd Feb 2018.Reading time 8 minutes.

USA, 1956—acronym from ‘white Anglo-Saxon Protestant’—‘Wasp’, or ‘WASP’: a person who belongs to, or is thought of, as being part of a white, upper middle-class, northern European, Protestant group that dominates economic, political and cultural activity in the USA

origin of the word ‘captcha’

29th Nov 2017.Reading time 6 minutes.

early 21st century—acronym from ‘Completely Automatic Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart’, with punning allusion to ‘capture’ and ‘gotcha’

the Romany origin of the British ‘chav’

3rd Oct 2017.Reading time 5 minutes.

UK, 1990s—either from Romany ‘čhavo’, an unmarried Romani male, a male Romani child, or from English or Anglo-Romany ‘chavvy’, a baby, a child

‘POTUS’ was originally a telegraphic abbreviation.

1st Aug 2017.Reading time 7 minutes.

late 19th century—‘POTUS’ was originally an abbreviation used in the Phillips code, a telegraphic code created in 1879 by Walter P. Phillips (1846-1920).

history of ‘MAMIL’ (middle-aged man in Lycra)

22nd Apr 2017.Reading time 6 minutes.

photograph from When exercise is dangerous: Endurance races risky for group sometimes called ‘middle-aged men in Lycra’ – the Chicago Tribune (Chicago, Illinois) – 17th July 2013 The word MAMIL is an acronym from the initial letters of middle-aged man in Lycra, probably punningly after mammal. Humorous and somewhat depreciative, it denotes a middle-aged […]

word histories

Tag: acronyms