15 Everyday Words That Are Actually Acronyms or Abbreviations
The PIN in “PIN number” is an acronym that stands for “Personal Input Number,” so if you say “PIN number” you’re actually saying “Personal Input Number Number.” However, unfortunately, if you’re one of those people who leaps at the chance to point that out every time you can, you’re an A-hole — an abbreviation in which the A represents the word “ass.”
ATM machine is the same. Yeah, sometimes someone will refer to putting their PIN number into an ATM machine, and however infuriating it might be, you have to STFU.
Acronyms, in which the initial letters of a name or phrase form a shorter word, and abbreviations, in which a word or phrase is shortened, are all over the place, but a lot of them are so frequently used that it’s easy to not realize they’re shortened forms of something more chunky.
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Scuba: Chunky to Wear, Clunky to Say in Full
Laser: Would Look Cooler with a Z
Taser: Contrived Bullshit
Spam: Mystery Meat
Captcha: We See What You Did There
Pog: Totally Radical
Sim Card: No Green Diamond to Be Seen
Zip Code: Just a Fun Word
The USA Patriot Act: Great Work, Anonymous Government Person
Base Jumping: Too Radical Not to Shorten
Care Package: More Complicated Than You’d Think
Radar: Cheating Naval Bastards
Nabisco: Mindblowing Cookie Origins
Ikea: Swedish Neat Balls
Gigaflop: Processing Gibberish
