SRA’s

We’ve all heard about TLA’s (Three-Letter Abbreviations), and maybe even ETLA’s (Extended Three-Letter Abbreviations).  But I think we need to extend this concept even further, to the broader category of Self-Referential Abbreviations (SRA’s).  Lets define an SRA as an abbreviation that describes a class of abbreviations of which it is also a member.

Here are a few more that I thought of:

• MFLA – Meaningless Four-Letter Abbreviation
• MUM – Multi-Use Mnemonic (or Mostly Useless Mnemonic)
• ELASTIC - Exceptionally Lengthy Abbreviation Stretched Torturously Into a mnemoniC

Got any more?

I’ve seen a number of MFLAs used for company names.  I used to work for a company back in the 80′s that wanted to change its name to CPAS (they wrote accounting software for accountants).  They toyed with making it an abbreviation for Certified Professional Accounting Systems, but in the end they decided just to use the abbreviation as their official name — thus, the abbreviation had no official meaning.  Later, they changed names again.  Synergex used to be called DISC, which ostensibly stood for Digital Information Systems Corporation — lots of content there!  Oddly, “MFLA” itself is not quite self-referential, because it does have meaning.

MUMs are particularly troubling.  When the same abbreviation is used for lots of different things (like IP, or CD), then they becoming mostly useless.  Again, though, “MUM” is somewhat useful, because its dual meanings are complementary.

I’m sure I’ve seen many ELASTICs, but I can’t think of any right now.  Can you?