‘andy acronyms
Acronyms are part of our daily lives - we go scuba-diving, see a laser light show, and bemoan the proliferation of quangos. These are all words that are formed from the first letters of other words; for instance, scuba comes from the initials of self-contained underwater breathing apparatus.
Although many acronyms are names of organizations (NASA), computing terms (BASIC), or financial products (TESSA), some encapsulate new concepts or phenomena in a memorable way. Ever since the yuppies and nimbys of the 1980s, market researchers and others have been coining snappy terms to describe new social types: recently, we've encountered kippers, who are older offspring who still live at home with their parents (from kids in parents' pockets eroding retirement savings) and neets (young people who are not in education, employment, or training), while ski-ing refers to those parents who are spending their kids' inheritance rather than bequeathing it to them in their wills.
adapted from an article by Catherine Soanes
