List of backronyms
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Not originally acronyms
- Ahimsa is a religious concept which advocates non-violence and a respect for all life; it is Sanskrit for avoidance of himsa. Himsa is injury to sentient beings. It is commonly backronymed as "Abstinence from animal products, Harmlessness with reverence for life, Integrity of thought, word, and deed, Mastery over oneself, Service to humanity, nature, and creation, and Advancement of understanding and truth".
- Apgar - a brief medical examination of new-born babies - was named after the doctor who introduced it but can be understood as an acronym for Appearance (skin color), Pulse (heart rate), Grimace (reflex irritability), Activity (muscle tone), Respiration.
- Fuck - urban legends often give this vulgarism a backronymic folk-etymology such as Fornication Under Consent of the King, Found Under Carnal Knowledge, For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge, or Fornication Unlawful in the Commonwealth of the King. [1]
- Gay - claimed by some gay people to stand for Good As You to assert that homosexuality merits equal status and treatment with heterosexuality; claimed by some homophobes to stand for "Got AIDS Yet?"
- Golf - a popular urban legend states that the game of golf originally stood for Gentlemen Only Ladies Forbidden. [1]
- Gospel - God's Only Son Provides Eternal Life
- Rap - Derided by some as Retards Attempting Poetry; with the entrance of white rappers like Eminem, this can also be further retro-fitted using the slang term Cracker Retards Attempting Poetry.
- Tip - an urban legend claims that "tip" (as in a gratuity for services) is an acronym for To Insure Promptness; this is false.
Audio and video
- Akai - Another Kaput Audio Invention
- Bose - Buy Other Sound Equipment
- Koss - K-tel's Obsolete Sound System, Keep Ordering Spare Speakers
- Lear - Lousy Eighttrack Audio Recordings (disputed — see )
- Sony - Seems Obsolete Next Year, Send Over Nippon Yen
- Teac - Tapes Eaten And Chewed
Automotive
- Audi - Accelerates Under Demonic Influence; Automatic Unexpected Death Initiator
- Buick - Big Ugly Import Car Killer
- Chevrolet - Can Hear Every Valve Rattling On Long Extended Trips; Can't Hear Excessive Valve Rap Over Lousy Engine Timing
- Chevy - Cheapest Heap Ever Visioned Yet, Cheap Heap Eats Valvess Yearly, Can't Help EVery Yuppie
- Chrysler - Charged High Retail, You'll Subsidise Lee's Early Retirement
- DeLorean - Don't Ever Lend One Rich Easterner Any Narcotics
- Dodge - Drips Oil, Drops Grease, Everywhere; Dead Or Dying Gutless Engines, Dies On Day Guarantee Expires.
- Ford - Ferro Oxide Rust Damage; Found On Rubbish Dump; Found On Road Dead; Fix Or Repair Daily (or Figure On Repairing Daily); Fast Only Rolling Downhill; For Old Retired Drivers; Fucker Only Runs Downhill; Fucked Over Rebuilt Dodge; Ford Owners Recommend Dodge; Fucking Old Rebuilt Dodge. A more praising backronym is First On Race Day. An example of a reverse backronym is Driver Returning On Foot. (also fr: «fabrication ordinaire, réparation dispendieuse»)
- Holden - Holes, Oil Leaks, Dents and Engine Noises
- Honda - Had One, Never Did Again
- Hyundai - Hope You Understand Nothing's Driveable And Inexpensive, Here's Y U Never Drive An Import
- Jeep - Just Empty Every Pocket; Junk, Each and Every Part; Just Enough Engine Power Just Enough Essential Parts; (also French: «j'ai épuisé entièrement patience»)
- YJ - Yukon Jeep
- TJ - Terra Jeep
- Kia - Killed in Action
- Lada - Left At Dump, Abandoned (fr: «laissée au dépotoir, abandonée»)
- Lotus - Lots Of Trouble, Usually Serious
- Neon - Nothing Especially Original Now, New Engine Often Needed
- Mazda (Hiroshima's revenge) - Made At Zoo (by) Demented Apes
- Mopar - Mostly Old Parts And Rust, My Ol' Plymouth Ain't Runnin'
- Olds - Old Lady Driving Slowly, Old Lady Driving Slowly Making Others Behind Infernally Late Everyday
- Pinto - Powerful Incendiary, Neatly Toasts Occupants
- Plymouth - Please Let Your Mama Out Under The Hood
- Pontiac - Poor Old Ninny Thinks It's a Cadillac ("Ninny" can be replaced by "negro", the more offensive term nigger, or "nutjob" or "native".)
- Repco - Rip Every Poor Cunt Off
- Subaru - Still Usable But All Rusted Underneath
- Toyota - Too Often Yanks Overprice This Automobile; Taking Our Yen Out - Thanks America!
- Yugo - You'll Usually Get Out
Aviation
- Air India - Airplanes In Repo In Nicaragua, Delay Inevitable Anyway
- Alitalia - Airplane Lands In Tokyo And Luggage In Atlanta; Always Late In Take-off, Always Late In Arrival; A Little Italian Tradition And Lotsa Italian Attitude
- American - Airline Meals Eaten Regularly Induce Cramps and Nausea
- CP Air - Completely Penniless And In Receivership
- Delta - Divert Everyone's Luggage To Atlanta; Doesn't/Don't Ever Leave The Airport; Didn't Expect To Land There Anyway; Don't Expect Luggage To Arrive.
- El Al - Every Landing Always Late
- Garuda - Good And Reliable Under Dutch Administration
- Gulf Air - Get Used to Late Flights
- Lufthansa - Let Us Find The Hostess, As No Steward Available; Let Us Fuck The Hostesses And Not Say Anything; Let Us Free The Hostages And Not Shoot Anyone
- Northwest - Nobody Out Ranks This Horrid, Worthless, Excruciatingly Sluggish Transport
- Olympic - Onassis Likes Your Money Paid In Cash
- Pan Am - Pilots Are Not A Must
- Sabena - Such A Bloody Experience, Never Again
- Sosa - Stay Out, Stay Alive
- Swissair - Sexy Women In Swissair Services Are Indeed Rare
- United - Usually Not Inclined To Eliminate Disasters
- USAir - Unfortunately Still Allegheny In Reality; Un-Safe Air
Computing and telecommunications
- Ada - A computer programming language named after Ada Lovelace, with intended-humorous backronym of Another Damn Acronym.
- Apple - Arrogance Produces Profit-Losing Entity
- Java - Just Another Vague Acronym; Just Another Vain Attempt
- Linux - Linux Is Not UniX; LINus' UniX
- Macintosh - Most Applications Crash (or Machine Always Crashes), If Not, The Operating System Hangs
- Microsoft - My Incompetent Computer Randomly Operates Sensibly/Stupidly On Floating Point Tasks; Most Intelligent Customers Realise Our Software Only Fools Toddlers
- Multics - Many Unnecessary Long Tables In Core Simultaneously
- Pentium - Produces Erroneous Numbers Through Incorrect Understanding of Math (see Pentium FDIV bug), PC Errors Not Tolerable I'd Use Macintosh
- Perl - Practical Extraction and Report Language; Pathologically Eclectic Rubbish Lister; Parse Every Random Line (in honor of the extensions proposed for Perl 6); Pathetic Excuse for a Real Language
- Ping - Packet InterNet Grouper
- Sid - Still In Development (see Debian)
- Spam - System Plugged (with) Annoying Messages; Stupid Person's AdvertiseMent; Stupid Puerile Ad Mail; Stuff (or Sewage) Posing As Mail; Send(ing) People Annoying Mail/Messages; Stupid Pointless Annoying Messages; Stupid Posts and Messages
- Windows - Windows Is Not a Defined Operating/Working System (this is actually a recursive backronym); Will Install Needless Data On Whole System
Manufacturing and commerce
- Acme is the canonical supplier of bizarre, elaborate, and non-functional gadgetry in Warner Brothers' Road Runner cartoons, commonly backronymed to "A (or American) Company Making (or Manufacturing) Everything".
- Adidas - Used once as a marketing tagline for the athletic apparel maker (named after its founder Adolph "ADI" DASsler) -- All Day I Dream About Sports/Soccer. Also title of a song by Korn: "All Day I Dream About Sex". A popular schoolground one in the UK is "After Dinner I Do A Shit". A well-known Spanish version would be: "Asociación De Idiotas Dispuestos A Superarse" (Association of idiots willing to get better). A popular Dutch version is "Alleen Domme Idioten Doen Aan Sport" (Only dumb idiots do sports). Also a reverse backronym, "Sex/Sports All Day Is Definitely American".
- Arby's - named after its founders; in the early 1980s the company launched an advertising campaign that used the backronym "America's Roast Beef, Yes Sir!"
- CHAPS - Coulda Had A Polo Shirt - Used as a deragatory term towards people who opted for the less expensive CHAPS line over the more expensive Polo Ralph Lauren
- Nike - Needs International Kids Employed
- Puma - Poor Unprofessional Mimickry of Adidas (de: «Probier Unbedingt Mal Adidas»)
Military and police
- A3D - All Three Dead (reference to bomber with three man crew and no ejection seats)
- Army - Aren't Real Men Yet; Aren't Ready for Marines Yet; Another Redneck Military Yahoo. As a backward backronym, tags on soldier's BDU's (Battle Dress Uniform) can be read "Yes My Retarded Ass Signed Up."
- Cop - identified by some as "constable on patrol", this originally might not be an acronym at all but a reference to grabbing the alleged villain (sharing origins with "it's a fair cop" or even "to cop a feel") -- Origins murky - could be shortned form of "Copper" since badges were made from the material in certain cities when professional policing began.
- CQD (a now-disused predecessor to the SOS or M'aidez distress calls) has been interpreted as Come Quick, Distress!, Come Quick, Disaster! or Come Quick, Danger!
- CVE - Combustible, Volatile (or Vulnerable) and Expendable
- Marine - Muscles Are Required, Intelligence Not Essential; My Ass Rides In Navy Equipment, Math And Reading Is Not Easy.
- Navy - Never Again Volunteer Yourself.
- NUTS - Nuclear Utilization Target Selection (disputed — see )
- Pig - When "pig" came into use as derogatory slang for a policeman, some of its targets retaliated by adopting the phrase "Pride, Integrity, Guts".
- SOS - Save Our Ship; Save Our Souls; Same Old Shit; Shitting OurSelves; Stuck On Stupid; Shit on a Shingle (popular Navy food)
People
- Athletes - Anakin Thought He Loved Everyone, Then Everyone Sneezed
- Bush - Beat Up Saddam Hussein, Big Ugly Shit Head
- Clinton - Come Lewinsky, I Need To Oral Now.
- Bills (football) - Boy, I Lose Lots of Superbowlss [sic] or (used only during the OJ Simpson trial) Boy I Love Life Sentences
- Diana - Died In A Nasty Accident.
- Iacocca - I Am Chairman Of Chrysler Corporation America.
Re-interpreted acronyms
Audio and video
- CRTC - Committee for Repression and Thought Control
- CAM - Costly Add-on Module
- DVB - Deficient Video Bandwidth, Definitely Very Boring, Delivering Virtually Bullshit
- DVD - Defective Video Display, Delivers Virtual Dreck - in computing and audio, "Digital Versatile Disc" is a valid backronym for what was originally a digital video disc; the DVD Consortium supposedly has never claimed that the letters DVD stood for anything specific.
- FTA - Folks Talking Arabic, in reference to the large quantity of available free ethnic television
- JBL - Junk, But Loud
- NTSC - Never The Same Color; Never Twice the Same Color; Never Tested Since Christ
- PAL - Peace/Perfect At Last; Picture Always Lousy; Pale And Lurid
- SCART - Strange Connector Americansns Rarely Try
- SECAM - System Essentially Contrary to the American Method; Shows Every Colour All Murky; Système Elegánt Contre le AMericaine (Elegant System Against the American - SECAM is a quasi-obsolete french color system)
- S/PDIF - Strange Plug, Does It Fit?
- VCR - Vile Crap, Regurgitated
- VHS - Virtually Hopeless Signal (originally stood for Vertical Helical Scan but believed by most people to mean Video Home System)
Automotive
- AMC - Another Mediocre Car
- BMW - Bring Money in Wheelbarrows; Big Money Waster; Break My Window(s); Basic Marin Wheels; Best Machines in the World; Bob Marley and the Wailers; Black Man's Wheels (in UK Afro-Caribbean culture); Break My Wallet; Be My Wife; Black Man's Willy; Bringing More Weight. A reverse backronym is Wanted Mercedes-Benz. In German: Bayerischer MistWagen (Bavarian Manure Wagon), Bayerische Mistwerke (Bavarian Muck Works), Bring Mir Werkstatt (Bring Me to Workshop) or Bei Mercedes Weggeworfen (Built from Mercedes' Wastebin), Baader-Meinhoff Wagen (after German Terrorist group of the 1970s), Body Made Wrong
- Fiat - Fix It Again Tomorrow; Fix It Again Tony; Found In A Trashbin; Futile/Feeble Italian Attempt at Transportation; Flat In Every Tyre; Fucking Idiot Asshole Towncar; Failure In Automotive Technology. In German: Fehler In Allen Teilen (faulty in all the parts); Für Italiener Ausreichende Technologie (For Italians, Adequate Technology). In Portuguese: Fui Idiota, Agora é Tarde (I've Been Stupid, Now It's Too Late) and Filial do Inferno Aqui na Terra(Filial of Hell on Earth).
- GM - Generally Mediocre, Grinding Metal
- GMC - Generally Mediocre Crankcase, Get My Coveralls, Garage Man's Companion (also fr: «grincements méchaniques continus»)
- IROC - Italian/Insipid Redneck/Retard Out Cruising; actually named for the International Race of Champions
- Chevrolet LUV (originally Light Utility Vehicle, a quarter ton pickup truck) - Little (or Low, especially if customised) Useless Vehicle
- MPV - Mostly Pitiful Vehicle
- NAPA - Not A Part Available
- NASCAR - Non Athletic Sports Created Around Rednecks; Negros Ain't Supposed to Come Around the Racetrack
- RAV4 - Really Awful Vehicle
- Saab - Shit, Another Accessory Broken; or Stolen And Always Broken (originally Svenska Aeroplan AB)
- SUV - Stupid Ugly Vehicle, Stupid Useless Vehicle, Sure to be Under their Vehicle (if in a collision with one)
- UAP - Useless Auto Parts
- VW - Virtually Worthless
Aviation
- AWA - America's Worst Airline
- BOAC - Better On A Camel; Better On Air Canada; Bit Of A Charlie; Barely Own Any Clocks; Bring Over American Cash; Boeing Only Aircraft Considered (complaint of British aeroplane industry)
- BWIA - Better Walk If Able; Britain's Worst Investment Abroad; But Will It Arrive?; Bound to Wait In the Airport
- KLM - Keeps Losing Money
- PAL - Plane Always Late
- Sahsa - Stay At Home, Stay Alive (originally Servicio Aereo de Honduras S.A.)
- TACA - Take A Chance Airlines; (In Spanish:) Tres Accidentes Cada Año (Three accidents each year)
- TAP - Take Another Plane; Tamancos Aéreos Portugueses [in Brazil: Portuguese Airborne Clogs]
- TWA - Try Walking Across; Try Walking Asshole; Teeny Weeny Airlines; The Worst Airline; Third World Airlines; Thousands Wandering Aimlessly; Terrorists Welcome Aboard
- UTA - Unlikely To Arrive (originally Union des Transports Aeriens)
- VASP - Vomite Aqui Seu Porco (Throw Up Here You Pig - reference to the VASP logo at the barf bag); Várias Aeromoças São Putas (Several Air Stewardesses Are Whores); a famous VASP pilot called Seu Pereira once had a severe illness and his co-workers used to refer to the company as Vamos Ajudar Seu Pereira (Let's Help Seu Pereira) to which he politely replied with a reverse backronym: Pereira Sinceramente Agradece a Vocês (Pereira Sincerely Thank You) - (originally Viações Aéreas de São Paulo)
Broadcasters and networks
- ABC - Annoying Basically Crud, Another Boring Channel
- BBC - Blokes, Blimey Chaps, Blair Broadcasting Corporation.
- CBC - Canada's Boring Coverage, Canada's Best Commentators, Communist Broadcasting Corporation, Canadian Broadcorping Castration
- CBS - Complete Bull Spreaders, Completely Boring Shows
- CTV - Canned Trivial Video
- CBOT - Can't Blame Others Totally
- CFTO - Can't Fool Torontonians Often, Can't Feel Totally Objective
- CHOT - Completely Hopeless Outaouais Télévision
- CJOH - Complete Junk (from) Ottawa-Hull
- CKWS - Capturing Kingston's Worst Signal
- CHUM - Come Hand Us Money, Can't Help Us Mature (the only Toronto-based broadcaster named after shark bait)
- CNN - Completely Nasty Network, Completely Neophyte Newscasters, Continuously Negative News, Chicken Noodle News, Chicken Noodle Network, Clinton News Network, Commie News Netowrk
- FOX News - Foundation Of Xenophobes Needlessly Embellishing War Stories
- KABC - Keeps Annoying Bored Californians
- KCBS - Keep Checking Broken System
- KNBC - Kids Needing Big Clues, Kaput - Need Bungee Cords
- KQED - Kings & Queens Eating Dinner
- MSNBC - More Stupid News Broadcast Constantly
- NBC - Neutered By Cable, Neutered By Censors
- PBS - Pretty Boring Stuff, Precious Broadcasting System (National Lampoon parody of NY broadcaster WPBS, but "donate $x million and win our studio buildings in downtown Manhattan" suggests a WNET 13 parody)
- VOCM - The Dominion of Newfoundland radio callsign prefix VO has typically been backronymed as "voice of", so VOCM would be the "Voice Of Church (of) Mary", "Voice Of the Common Man" or (if one were being critical) "Voice Of Complete Morons".
- WABC - We'll Always Be Crying, We'll Always Be Cynical
- WCAU - We're Crap And Unwatchable
- WCBS - We Can't Be Serious
- WCNY - We Constantly Need You
- WNBC - We Need Better Cameras, Watch News Because of Chuck (Chuck Scarborough has been anchoring the 11PM newscast since 1974)
- WNET - We Need Extra Time
- WNYC - We Need Your Cash
- WNYW - Whats News You'll Wonder
- WPBS-TV - We'll Pledge-Break Soon, Thanks Viewers!
- WB - Wasted Bandwidth, We're Black!
- UPN - Unlimited Programming for Negros, UnderPaid Niggers
Computing
- AMOS - A Mound Of Shit
- AOL - Almost On Line; America Off Line; Assholes On Line; American OverLords; Army Of Lamers; Always Off Line
- APL - A Perfect Language; A Preposterous Language; Another Programming Language; similar others
- ASP - Awfully Slow Pages
- BASIC - Bill's Attempt to Seize Industry Control, Banal Annoyingly Slow Interpretive Computing
- BUMP - Bring Up My Post
- COBOL - Completely Obscure, Basically Obsolete Language; Compiles Only Because Of Luck
- CYGNUS - CYGNUS, Your GNU Support (recursive acronym)
- DOS - Defunct/Defective Operating System; Dumb Operating System
- DRM - Digital/Draconian Restrictions Management
- EMACS - Escape, Meta, Alt, Control, Shift; EMACS Makes A Computer Slow; Eight Megabytes And Constantly Swapping; (In German:) EMACS Macht Alle Computer Schön (EMACS makes all computers beautiful)
- FAQ - Frequently Avoided Questions
- FORTH - Found On Really Tiny Hardware
- GNU - GNU's Not Unix; GNU Needs Users (recursive backronyms), Gates Now Unhappy
- GNU EMACS - Generally Not Used Except by Middle Aged Computer Scientists.
- GOATSE - GameSurge Offensive Apprehension and Tactical Strike Evaluation
- HAL - Decronym (one letter before) of IBM
- HP - High Price
- IBM - Inferior But Marketable; It's Better Manually; Idiots Become Managers; Insidious Black Magic; International Brotherhood of Magicians; It's Been Malfunctioning; Incontinent Bowel Movement; I Blame Microsoft (see OS/2); I Buy Macintosh; I've Been Moved (by 1950s and 1960s employees in reference to frequent relocations); Inmensa Bola de Mierda (Spanish for "Huge Piece of Shit")
- IIS - It Isn't Secure
- LISP - Lots of Irritating Superfluous Parentheses (alternatively Silly/Stupid Parentheses); Lots of Infuriating Silly Parentheses; Lost In Silly Parentheses; Lost In a Sea of Parentheses; Lots of Idiotic, Silly Parentheses (after its syntax involving a lot of parentheses indeed).
- MIPS - Meaningless Indication of Processor Speed
- MMU - Magical Mystery Unit
- NFS - Not Fully Serviceable
- NT Not Tested; Not There; Nice Try; Nasty and Troublesome; Not to be Trusted; No Thanks; (in Spanish:) No Trabaja (It doesn't work); (In Finnish) reads like "en tee" meaning "I won't do (it)", Windows NT (WNT) is an incronym (one letter after) of VMS the previous OS designed by Dave Cutler the designer of NT
- NTFS - Neatly Toasted File System, Now Try Finding Something
- OSF - Oppose Sun Forever
- PCMCIA - People Can't Memorize Computer Industry Acronyms
- PHP - People Hate Perl
- PINE - Program for Internet News and Email (originally the recursive acronym PINE Is Not Elm)
- Prolog - PRObably the Language Of God
- RAID - Redundant Array of Independent (or Inexpensive) Disks
- RAM - Rarely Adequate Memory
- RPG - Really Poor Grammar; Rapidly Programmed Garbage
- RTFM - Read The Fine Manuals (euphemistic backronym from the original Read The Fucking Manual)
- SAP - Originally 'Systemanalyse und Programmentwicklung' in German, the name of the configurable software package developed by SAP gmbh from 1971 onwards. This has been backronymed by SAP Inc. into English as “Systems, Applications and Products in data processing”.
- SCSI - System Can't See It (referring to inherent problems with SCSI drivers under Microsoft Windows)
- SSDD - Same Sh!t, Different Day
- STFW - Surf The Fucking Web
- TIFF - Thousands of Incompatible File Formats (referring to divergent third-party extensions that have compromised the portability of the format)
- TSR - Trash System Randomly
- UDP - Unreliable Datagram Protocol
- WWW - WorldWide Wait; Wait Wait Wait
- Wi-Fi - Wireless Internet, Free Internet; We Inevitably Find Interference
- XP - Cross out your Privacy, eXtended Problems, eXtra Pain, XiaoPing
Education
- BS - BullShit
- MS - More Shit; More of the Same
- PhD - Piled Higher and Deeper; PissHead's Diploma; Permanent Head Damage
- CMSU - Call Me Stupid University; School for Dyslexic Marines
- EMU - Eternal MisUnderstanding
- FAU - Find Another University
- GNVQ - Generally Not Very Qualified; Going Nowhere Very Quickly
- GED - Good Enough Degree
- HND - Has No Degree
- LPN - Let's Pretend Nurse
- MBA - Makes Big Assholes; Many Brains Annihilated; Master of Bugger All; Mediocre But Arrogant
- MCSE - Must Consult Somebody Experienced; Minesweeper Consultant and Solitaire Expert
- MIT - Made In Taiwan
- UCI - University of Chinese Immigrants; University of Civics and Integras
- UCLA - University of Caucasians Lost among Asians
- UCR - University of Cal Rejects
- UCSB - University of Casual Sex and Beer; U Can Study Buzzed
- UBC - University of a Billion Chinese
- UMBC - Under Major Building Construction; U Must Be Crazy
- UNLV - Unfortunately No Longer Virgins (the official meaning of hiphop group UNLV's name). In the city of Vancouver, Washington, this has become University of Never Leaving Vancouver, likewise with the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
- USC - University of Spoiled Children; University of Spoiled Coeds; Up Shit Creek; University of South Central; University, Second Choice; University, Second Class
- USD - University of Spoiled Daughters
- UNC - University of No Credit; University of Nice Chicks
- UWO - Undergrads Wait Outside
Manufacturing and commerce
- DHL - Deliver Halfway Lost
- NDS (smartcard vendor) - No Darned Security
- NEPA - The Nigerian National Electric Power Authority, which because of its variable quality of service is commonly called Never Expect Power Anywhere or No Electric Power Anticipated. When the company became a public limited company and changed its formal name to NEPA PLC, the backronym was changed to No Electric Power Available, Please Light Candle.
- NFG - (if the customer asks) New, Fully Guaranteed; (otherwise) No Fucking Good
- OTC - distillery trademark, originally Of The Craft; became Off To Canada during Prohibition
- UPS - United Package Smashers; pronounced as "oops"
Military and police
- BATF - Burn All The Families; Burn All Toddlers First (in reference to the Waco disaster)
- BFD - Used as the apathetic "Big Fucking Deal" acronym everywhere else, this appears on Brockville fire department trucks
- CIWS - Christ, It Won't Shoot
- CID - Coppers In Disguise; more colourfully, Cunts In Disguise
- FBI - Full-Blooded Indian; Fry Bread Inspector; From Big Island; Federal Breast Inspector (many are popular T-shirt slogans); also Federal Bureau of Incineration; Fire and Brimstone, Inc., (in reference to the Waco disaster); Female Body Inspector; Female Boobie Inspector
- HRT - Hostage Roasting Team (in reference to the Waco disaster)
- MOAB - Mother Of All Bombs (originally Massive Ordnance Air Blast bomb,a US Army weapon)
- MRE (army food) - Mediocre Rarely Edible; Meals Rejected by Ethiopia/Everyone
- NSA - "No Such Agency"; conversely, "Not Secret Anymore".
- OPP (police) - Official Party Poopers (also, the OPP backronymed their own name as "Our Purpose Prevention")
- RCMP (police) - "Refill Coffee Mug, Please"
- TSA - Thousands Standing Around; Taking Scissors Away
- USMC - Uncle Sam's Misguided Children; U. Signed the Motherfucking Contract.
People
- NFL - Not For Long; No Family Life/League; No Fun League
- NHL - No Hockey League; Now Have Lockout
- S&M; - standing and modeling (in reference to fetishwear affectionados)
- PTL - Pass the Lube, Pass The Loot (common during the Jimmy Bakker/Jimmy Swaggart scandals of the 1980s)
- VIP - Very Impatient Pest; Vamos Invadir essa Pôrra (Let's Invade This F* Place)
- Yaoi - YAmette, Oshiri Itai! - "Stop, my butt hurts!"
Politics
- CCCP - Clinton Complete Care Plan (from critics who considered the failed proposal to be left-wing)
- GDR - Guard Dogs Ready
- GOP - Greedy Old People; Grinches On Parade
- IMF - Insurrection, Misery & Famine
- NPWS - No People Welcome, Sorry; No People and Weird Stuff-ups (from their habit of making some National parks very difficult to access) - (originally National Parks and Wildlife Service (Australia))
- PETA - People Eating Tasty Animals
- PRC - Peking's Repressive Communism
- PSAC (union) - People Standing Around Complaining (fr: AFPC = «Association des Fortement Paresseux du Canada»)
- RESPECT The Unity Coalition, a left wing political party in the UK where RESPECT was later explained officially as Respect, Equality, Socialism, Peace, Environmentalism, Community and Trade Unionism, or among its opponents as Recently Expelled Scottish Politician Endorses Communist Tyranny [1].
- USA - Unbelievably-Sized Arsenals
Ranks of the Order of St Michael and St George
From bottom to top:- CMG - Call Me God
- KCMG - Kindly Call Me God, Kings Call Me God
- GCMG - God Calls Me God
Retail
- CVS/pharmacy sometimes uses the motto "Convenience, Value, Service"; some customers believe "Customers Victimized Severely" is more appropriate.
- LCBO - Lifting Cash from Bums in Ontario
- SAQ - Society of Alcoholics of Québec
Science
- DNA - National Dyslexic Association
- HCl (hydrochloric acid) - Highly Corrosive Liquid
- H2SO4 (sulphuric acid) - Hot Hot Searing! Ouch Ouch Ouch Ouch!
- Laser - Looking At Source Erases Retina
- NASA - Need Another Seven Astronauts (in reference to the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster and Space Shuttle Columbia disaster); Never Actually Sure of Anything
Telecommunications
- ATM - A Terrible Mistake.
- BUD - Big Useful Dish (for C band satellite fans, term was previously defined as "Big Ugly Dish")
- FCC - During the heyday of citizen's band radio, those who operated illegally or on the edge of the law called the Federal Communications Commission the Friendly Candy Company or Fat Chance Charlie.
- ISDN - I Still Don't Need It; It Still Does Nothing; I Smell Dollars Now; Intentionally Slow Dumb Networking
