ASAP, BRB, TTYL — we’re all guilty of rushing our communications and shortening frequently used phrases. But sometimes an abbreviation becomes so ubiquitous that it replaces a full word or phrase, and almost no one remembers the original usage. Some of the terms you use every day started out as acronyms before they became accepted common vocabulary words. Make sure to RSVP for this language lesson as we decipher some of the most common acronyms and abbreviations hiding in plain sight.

You can’t get your SCUBA certification without learning this acronym. It means “self-contained underwater breathing apparatus,” which is a pretty straightforward description of the equipment and the activity.

This one originated in a pulp fiction series. It stands for “Tom Swift and His Electric Rifle,” both the name of a 1911 book, and the series’ main character and his weapon. The electric rifle and the modern taser differ in functionality, but it’s interesting to examine how sci-fi predictions and inventions have turned up in reality. The 1970s word “taser” was inspired by Tom Swift, and patterned on “laser.”

Lots of technological terms are acronyms, and for good reason. A long string of words isn’t always easy to remember, and a random letter mashup isn’t either. Industry jargon tends to create pronounceable words out of the abbreviations: “RADAR” stands for “radio detection and ranging.”

Similar to “RADAR,” “SONAR” refers to a type of ranging. Instead of radio detection, it uses sound to navigate. “SONAR” stands for “sound navigation ranging.”

Be happy “LASER” goes by the acronym and not the full name: “light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation.” As with “taser,” “radar,” and “sonar,” “laser” is now commonly used as a regular word, not just as the acronym.

You might send these types of parcels because you care, but that’s not what they’re named for. “CARE” stands for “Cooperative for American Remittances,” an organization that helped send packages from Americans to their friends and family in Europe after World War II. The original CARE packages contained macaroni, cornmeal, Carnation chocolate drink mix, and dried milk.

No, smart cars weren’t named for their genius capabilities. The acronym “smart” (styled in the lowercase) stands for “Swatch Mercedes Art.” It’s a pretty big name for such a tiny car, but that’s the name Swatch and Daimler Benz agreed on for their collaboration.

It sounds exactly like what it was created to do — capture. The “completely automated public Turing test to tell computers and humans apart” was always intended to be an acronym, and it’s a lot less work than saying the whole thing.

You might also enjoy

Language

Is That an Acronym or an Initialism?

Vocabulary

Decoding ‘IQ,’ ‘P.S.,’ and More Everyday Abbreviations

Yes, even search engines and company names are acronyms. This one is “Yet Another Hierarchically Officious Oracle.” (The exclamation point was added for trademark differentiation, but also serves as branding.) This tech conglomerate is still hanging on, but its overly long name doesn’t mean much anymore.

There’s not a canola plant, but you can still find this all-purpose cooking oil in many pantries. It comes from the rapeseed plant, but that’s a loaded name to sell at the grocery store. Canadian scientists made the rapeseed oil better suited for cooking, and now you can purchase “Canada oil, low acid.”

Whether it’s due to new technology that demands new terminology, or younger generations inventing and repurposing slang, words and their definitions change over time. Sometimes a word gains a different usage in slang or casual conversation, and the updated context gets picked up in print, and soon a new definition appears in the dictionary. Ask a lexicographer, and they’ll tell you that the definition of a word is only accurate if that’s the way people are using it. Let’s take a look at some words that have been through a veritable roller coaster of meanings throughout the centuries.

In the 14th century, the original meaning of “fantastic” was “only existing in the imagination,” as if in a fantasy. It took on its more general, superlative meaning — “wonderful or very good” — in the 1930s. After the fantasy of the Roaring ’20s crashed into the Great Depression, maybe it was time to get back down to earth.

There was once a time when vegetarians could eat meat for every meal. Although it’s unlikely there were many vegetarians by choice back then, the Middle English definition of “meat” was simply “food, nourishment, or animal feed.” This included carrots, potatoes, and anything else on the menu. It wasn’t until the 1300s that the word started to refer to the flesh of animals eaten as food.

As one of the most infamously abused words in the English language, “literally” is the bane of many grammar sticklers. Yes, one definition in use since the 1530s is “in accordance with the exact meaning of the words used.” But for over 300 years, the word has been squeezed and squished into so many dubious contexts that the Oxford English Dictionary literally added “used for emphasis while not being literally true” to the list of definitions.

“Myriad” used to be a word that specified the number 10,000. This came from the Greek myrias, meaning the same thing. However, the word always had connotations with “a number too large to be counted,” as 10,000 was the largest number the Greeks could express in a single word. Now we simply say “ten thousand,” and “myriad” means “a countless or extremely great number.”

You might also enjoy

Language

5 Ways Shakespeare Changed How We Talk

Language

According to the Dictionary, ‘Irregardless’ Is a Word

“Egregious” comes from the Latin egregius, meaning “illustrious,” which was used to mean “standing out from the flock.” In the 1500s, the English word was used to mean “excellent or distinguished,” yet by the 1600s, “egregious” was being used sarcastically to mean “outstandingly bad or shocking.” This widespread use of the word is what ultimately stuck, and “egregious” has been forever tarnished since.

The term “grandfather clock” has little to do with family relationships, growing older, or bowls full of Werther’s Original candy. In fact, the clock design (which the Oxford English Dictionary describes as “a weight-and-pendulum eight-day clock in a tall case”) is several generations older than the name. Let’s chime in and take a look at how this timekeeping device got its grandfatherly name. 

Before we called it a grandfather clock, the tall-case or long-case clock was the housing for pendulum timekeeping. These types of clocks were invented in the mid-17th century by astronomer and physicist Christian Huygens. Pendulum timekeeping was vastly more accurate than spring-driven timekeeping that was otherwise available. As such, the pendulum design caught on with London clockmakers, who began producing these sleek, tall cases en masse. They were popular for their aesthetic appeal as well as their accuracy.

The name change occurred two centuries later, thanks to the popularity of the 1876 song “Grandfather’s Clock” by American composer Henry Clay Work. While visiting England, Work became fascinated by a broken long-case clock in a hotel lobby. He heard a (possibly apocryphal) story from staff that the clock belonged to the two former hotel owners and it stopped working when they both died. Inspired by this tale, Work penned song lyrics about a long-case clock that stopped working after a grandfather’s passing: 

(And it continues for a few more verses.)

You might also enjoy

Language

5 Ways Shakespeare Changed How We Talk

Vocabulary

5 Words That Meant Something Completely Different 50 Years Ago

Work’s song was so popular that it sold over a million copies of sheet music and changed the common name of the long-case clock to the “grandfather clock.” By 1883, the new term was being used by clockmakers and sellers, and was appearing regularly in print ads.