Acronyms

Juvenal · 27 Sep 2023 at 15:38

A historical one: Between 1922 and their entry into WW2, the commanding officer of the US Navy went by “Commander-in-Chief, US Fleet”. This was naturally shortened to C-in-C, US and then to CINCUS.

Somehow this went almost 20 years with nobody thinking an acronym pronounced “Sink Us” was an issue for a naval officer…

Kelt · 27 Sep 2023 at 15:39

nst68 said:
The best three letter acronym is TLA

I had to look that up, Tech London Advocates.

BF-Bert · 27 Sep 2023 at 15:42

Hades said:
Rather than take the Ukraine thread off topic I thought I'd start a separate thread on funny acronyms.

Ukraine Invasion - Please do not post videos showing attacks/similar

I was today years old when I realised ATACMS is an acronym for "attack them's". Yes I'm slow.

forums.overclockers.co.uk

Ukraine Invasion - Please do not post videos showing attacks/similar

That’s 5km in a day if they are at the southern end. That’s good progress if they are holding the territory, maintaining supply lines, dealing with mines etc. The key thing is if they can hold what they have whilst minimising casualties and continuing to push, even if slow.

forums.overclockers.co.uk

I'll throw in another, although it's not really an acronym. While I was working at a bank in the 2000's they introduced a new intranet, meant to help with the transformation of the company and exchange of ideas. Some bright spark had the great idea to start the web page addresses with... https://transexchange.

So... any funny acronyms you have come across?

ATACMS isn't it Army Tactical Missile System

Pawnless Endgame · 27 Sep 2023 at 17:05

JRS said:
Coventry University Netball Team was a pretty decent one before the fun was ended by someone figuring it out.

There was a ride at Alton Towers called Submission which had the sub-heading "Hang In There". They later realised their mistake and shortened it to Submission after about a year!

Submission (Alton Towers) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

ttaskmaster · 27 Sep 2023 at 17:40

nst68 said:
The best three letter acronym is TLA

Despite it being an abbreviation, not an acronym...

Demon · 27 Sep 2023 at 17:44

Grrrrr said:
Who here is a Tuesdays, Wednesdays And Thursdays worker?

All I can say to that question is see you next tuesday..

ivrytwr3 · 27 Sep 2023 at 19:15

potatolord said:
As this is kinda my fault, I'll quote my post from the other thread that started this:

The worst effort I have seen (which I was forced to notify to management, despite personally finding it very funny) was: Pupil Assessement and Examinations Development Officer.

Physical Education Officer - PEdO.

The_Arbiter · 27 Sep 2023 at 19:39

Failure on my part

The_Arbiter · 27 Sep 2023 at 19:39

Stu999 · 27 Sep 2023 at 19:39

potatolord said:
As this is kinda my fault, I'll quote my post from the other thread that started this:

The worst effort I have seen (which I was forced to notify to management, despite personally finding it very funny) was: Pupil Assessement and Examinations Development Officer.

Did you apply for the role?

potatolord · 27 Sep 2023 at 19:42

Stu999 said:
Did you apply for the role?

No, your dad was already appointed.

Omits · 27 Sep 2023 at 20:01

A group of bankers is called a WUNCH OF BANKERS.

esmozz · 27 Sep 2023 at 20:08

I suspect the swear filter is going to catch this one but I’ll give it a go. And I know, it’s not an acronym but still….

I had a colleague once who had the second name of Kunt. His first initial was A. (Seriously)

potatolord · 27 Sep 2023 at 20:14

On the funniness of foreign names, from wikipedia:

"Reinhardt Adolfo **** is a Brazilian geologist and professor at the University of Brasília. **** specializes on geochronology and petrology, having written extensively on Pre-Cambrian geology.[2]"

tom_nieto · 27 Sep 2023 at 20:17

SearCh for humourIstic and Extravagant acroNyms and Thoroughly Inappropriate names For Important Clinical trials (SCIENTIFIC): qualitative and quantitative systematic study

Objectives To describe the development of acronym use across five major medical specialties and to evaluate the technical and aesthetic quality of the acronyms. Design Acronyms obtained through a literature search of Pubmed.gov followed by a standardised assessment of acronym quality (BEAUTY...

www.bmj.com

Welcome to the wonderful world of clinical trials with terrible acronyms. They don’t even use the first letter of each word.

For example -

METGO

A 48-week, randomized, double-blind, double-observer, placebo-controlled multicenter trial of combination METhotrexate and intramuscular GOld therapy in rheumatoid arthritis: results of the METGO study

And

PERFORM

Prevention of cerebrovascular and cardiovascular Events of ischaemic origin with teRutroban in patients with a history oF ischaemic strOke or tRansient ischaeMic attack

/facepalm

gingergundog · 27 Sep 2023 at 20:18

potatolord said:
No, your dad was already appointed.

dirtychinchilla · 27 Sep 2023 at 22:07

JRS said:
Coventry University Netball Team was a pretty decent one before the fun was ended by someone figuring it out.

potatolord said:
Oh, and there was a greasy spoon in Cardiff called "The Warm As Toast Cafe".

Kelt said:
I blame Rodney and Delboy for starting it all with Trotters Independent Traders.

All initialisms, not acronyms. This whole thread is wrong.

@Feek feel like this would be right up your street.

Kelt · 27 Sep 2023 at 22:13

dirtychinchilla said:
All initialisms, not acronyms. This whole thread is wrong.

@Feek feel like this would be right up your street.

Well, I didn't feel like saying TIT.

Gixer · 28 Sep 2023 at 20:37

BBC and ATM

Either can be totally innocent or very much not