Acronyms You Use But Don’t Know What They Mean

An Acronym is an abbreviation formed from the initial letters of other words and pronounced as a word like CBI (stands for Central Bureau of Investigation) or OMG (stands for Oh My God). Acronyms are so common in the daily lingo that most of us don’t even realize that we are using one.

From brand names to our texting language, we use them all the time. Yet, do we know ’em all? I mean yes, we definitely are aware of some but there are numerous we are oblivious to (at times even to the fact that they’re actually acronyms)

Curious to know what the most commonly known ones mean? Let’s take a moment for self-knowledge!

Daily used Acronyms

BAE – BAE stands for “Before Anyone Else“. We actually use the word so often without even knowing what it means!

GIF – While GIF being an acronym is probably no surprise, the word being 30 years old is quite a blow! Also, it’s an acronym for “graphics interchange format”

aka – Might be your zillionth time hearing this but did you know Aka stands for “Also known as“

ROFL – Wondering, right? It’s “Rolling on Floor Laughing”

KISS – Even kiss is an acronym and it stands for “Keep it simple stupid” My whole life was a lie, what about you?

LTE – We’re used to seeing this every day but do you know what it means? LTE stands for “Long Term Evolution”

Spam- No, it’s no original word either! But what comes as a shock is its origin which is rooted in meat! Though it’s not confirmed yet, the word is believed to be the short of “Special Processed American Meat” or just “SPiced HAM“

CC and BCC- You wondered about this and here it is! CC stands for “Carbon Copy” and BCC for “Blind Carbon Copy“

R.S.V.P- This isn’t even English! R.S.V.P is derived from the French phrase “Répondez s’il vous plait” meaning “Please Reply”. For decades this acronym has been used in invitations without the host or the invitees understanding what it means 😂

e.g. – It stands for “Exempli Gratia”, meaning “Example given” or “for example”.

i.e. – Believe it or not, this ain’t English either! It stands for “id est”, a Latin phrase meaning “that is” or “This is to say”.

A.M/P.M – Okay, enough use without knowing! A.M & P.M stand for “Ante Meridiem” and “Post Meridiem” which in Latin mean “before midday” and “after midday” respectively!

Product/ Service Names

JPEG(JPG)- This extension is an acronym too! Short for “Joint Photographic Experts Group” named after the committee that set the standards!

CAPTCHA- It stands for “Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart“

USB- We used it way too much without knowing, USB means “Universal Serial Bus”

Laser- Yes, this is an acronym! Laser actually stands for “Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation“

SIM(card)- It wasn’t just a random term either! It’s an abbreviation for “Subscriber Identity Module”.

Humvee- It is one of a rare group of words formed by a vague attempt to pronounce a string of letters—in this case, the acronym HMMWV, standing for “high-mobility multi-purpose wheeled vehicle”

Radar- Science lover? Here’s an acronym you were probably unaware of! RADAR stands for “RAdio Detection And Ranging“

Scuba- Scuba is an acronym for “Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus” Surprising enough?

Taser- The term wasn’t made up but actually stands for “Thomas A Swift Electric Rifle” The device is named after Tom Swift, its creator’s favorite character!

Canola oil- This vegetable oil hails from Canada and was originally called “Canada Oil Low Acid” but it was abbreviated into the Canola Oil.

MODEM- “MODulate -DEModulate“

SKYPE – The online communication program was originally going to be called “Sky Peer-to-Peer,” due to its peer-to-peer technology that would be transferred “in the sky.” Eventually, the founders decided that was too long and shortened the name to “Skyper.” After realizing many of the domain names for the word “Skyper” were already taken, it was then shortened one last time to “Skype” before launching in 2003.

Business Names

IMDB- “Internet movie database“

YKK – The initials you see on darn near every zipper you own stand for Yoshida KÅ gyÅ Kabushikigaisha, which translates into “Yoshida Manufacturing Corporation.” The company is named after Tadao Yoshida, who started the zipper concern in Tokyo in 1934.

YAHOO – “Yet Another Hierarchical Official Oracle“

IKEA – It stands for Ingvar Kamprad Elmtaryd Agunnaryd, named for the founder’s initials and his hometown.

BMW – It means Bayerische Motoren Werke, which translates from German to “Bavarian Motor Works”

Adidas is named after its founder, Adolf (Adi) Dassler.

MAC – Did you know referring to it as ” MAC cosmetics” is technically redundant! Because MAC stands for “Make-up Art Cosmetics”

JBL – The speaker company is named after its founder, James Bullough Lansing. But if Lansing had kept his original name, the company might have been called Martini Speakers. Lansing was born James Martini in 1902, but when he was 25, he changed his name to James Lansing at the suggestion of the woman who would become his wife.

DHL – In the late 1960s, Larry Hillblom was a broke student at the University of California, Berkeley’s law school, so to pick up a bit of extra cash, he would make courier runs from San Francisco. Hillblom would often fly packages on the night’s last flight then return to the Bay Area with more packages.

After he finished law school, he decided the courier business was the real racket for him, so he recruited his pals Adrian Dalsey and Robert Lynn to help him with the runs. Although they started out making their delivery trips in a single Plymouth Duster, the company quickly took off, and they named it after their respective last initials.

Last but most important one

SOS… doesn’t stand for anything! It was chosen as a sign of distress for its unmistakable Morse code representation—three dots, three dashes, three dots.