words made from the first letters of other words
acronym
title: Acronym text: was formed from the Greek words , ', "topmost, extreme" and , ', "name.") For example, the army offense of being "absent without official leave" was abbreviated to "A.W.O.L." in reports, but when pronounced as a word ("awol"), it became an acronym. While initial letters are commonly used to form an acronym, the original definition was "a word made from the initial letters or syllables of other words", for example UNIVAC from UNIVersal Automatic Computer. In English, acronyms "pronounced as words" may be a 20th-century phenomenon. Linguist David Wilton in "Word Myths: Debunking Linguistic Urban Legends" claims that "forming words title: Word text: and one or more affixes ("rock-s, red-ness, quick-ly, run-ning, un-expect-ed"), or more than one root in a compound ("black-board, sand-box"). Words can be put together to build larger elements of language, such as phrases ("a red rock", "put up with"), clauses ("I threw a rock"), and sentences ("He threw a rock too, but he missed"). The term "word" may refer to a spoken word or to a written word, or sometimes to the abstract concept behind either. Spoken words are made up of units of sound called phonemes, and written words of symbols called graphemes, such as the letters of title: Notarikon text: Notarikon Notarikon ( "Noṭariqōn") is a method of deriving a word, by using each of its initial (Hebrew: ) or final letters () to stand for another, to form a sentence or idea out of the words. Another variation uses the first "and" last letters, or the two middle letters of a word, in order to form another word. The word "notarikon" is borrowed from the Greek language (νοταρικόν)), and was derived from the Latin word "notarius" meaning "shorthand writer." Notarikon is one of the three ancient methods used by the Kabbalists (the other two are gematria and temurah) to title: Backronym text: Backronym A backronym, or bacronym, is a constructed phrase that purports to be the source of a word that is an acronym. Backronyms may be invented with either serious or humorous intent, or they may be a type of false etymology or folk etymology. An acronym is a word derived from the initial letters of the words of a phrase: For example, the word "radar" comes from "radio detection and ranging". By contrast, a backronym is constructed by creating a new phrase to fit an already-existing word, name, or acronym. For example, the United States Department of Justice assigns to title: Abbreviation text: be avoided. This might be done to save time and space, and also to provide secrecy. Shortened words were used and initial letters were commonly used to represent words in specific applications. In classical Greece and Rome, the reduction of words to single letters was common. In Roman inscriptions, "Words were commonly abbreviated by using the initial letter or letters of words, and most inscriptions have at least one abbreviation." However, "some could have more than one meaning, depending on their context. (For example, "A" can be an abbreviation for many words, such as "ager", "amicus", "annus", "as", "Aulus", "Aurelius",