backronym
[ bak-ruh-nim ]
noun
- an existing word turned into an acronym by creating an apt phrase whose initial letters match the word, as to help remember it or offer a theory of its origin. For example, rap has been said to be a backronym of “rhythm and poetry.”
- the phrase itself. For example, “port out, starboard home” is a misleading backronym for posh .
************************************
Billy sat hunched in front of the piece of paper. That caught the immediate attention of his roommate, Kyle. Usually when Billy sat hunched in front of something, it involved a screen. And actually doing something.
“Hey, man, what’s going on?” Kyle asked.
Without even looking up from the paper, Billy shushed Kyle. Kyle slowly moved to look at what was so important. He saw several words scribbled over it. Two of them, game and play, were written in big, bold letters. Others were hastily written and crossed out.
“No seriously, what are you doing?”
Billy shot his roommate an angry look before turning back to whatever his task was.
“If you won’t leave me alone, maybe you can at least be useful and help.”
“Okay? Gotta know what I’d be helping with first, man.”
“I’m making an acronym out of one of these two words. It’s for an event or something. Sally wanted me to do it, so I damn well better do a great job.”
“So what’s the problem?”
“The words making up the acronym must have something to do with the original word. You know, describe it in some way. I can’t just string together a few nice sounding words and call it a day. It needs to have a semblance of coherence.”
“Weird requirement, but okay.”
“The problem I’m having is I can’t just go ahead and use the word inside of the acronym. I mean, really? How am I supposed to make a descriptive word out of ‘game’ without using the word ‘game’ in it?”
Kyle thought for a moment. “Great and merry entertainment?”
Billy paused for a moment then furiously scribbled that down, writing the words vertically under the appropriate header.
“We’ll workshop it. Now what about play?”
“Oh that one’s harder. That Y is a problem.”
“I know, right? And the P is only slightly better.”
They both thought for a moment before Kyle asked a pressing question. “Can you get away with only one of them?”
“I suppose I could. She did only want one good phrase to use. But I figured it’d be best to give an option for both. Or multiple options.”
“Ah. Trying to earn some serious boyfriend points, huh?”
“Damn right. Now stop talking and think. One option won’t do.”
The two went back to their silent thoughts. The only sound was Billy scratching at the paper, writing words and then immediately crossing them out.
“Grants all much enjoyment. Not sure how much more I can do for that one. And I still don’t have anything for play.” Kyle said after a few moments. Billy wrote the phrase down. “By the way, what is this for anyway?”
“I don’t know. Some kids thing she signed us both up for. A game day at the library or something like that.”
“That helps a lot less than I thought it would.”
“Yeah. I already exhausted that line of thought. No B’s, so we can’t use book in there anywhere.”
“Well, I’m sure there’s something out there. We just have to keep thinking and eventually we’ll get it.”
The two kept thinking. They were determined to get at least one phrase for play. It was just going to take awhile.
********************************
I tried to come up with stuff. But the problem are those middle two letters. You'd think those would be the easy two, but nope. Something about Youth, I think.
No comments:
Post a Comment