This is an interesting parlo(u)r game

[Hugh]

Where "interesting" is in the eye of the beholder. This beholder thinks it cute, if a bit lame. More worthy of a children's campfire game then a parlo(u)r game for adults.

Understand that I'm very much a traditionalist when it comes to language. The editors of our authoritative dictionaries already give in much too easily by adopting jargon and ungrammatical but popular usages as newly-minted proper English, leading to a horrible decline in the purity of the language.

This effect is heightened by the influence of non-authoritative sources abusing the language and instantly publishing the results on the Internet, where anyone can be an authority and not subject themselves to editorial or peer review. Readers fail to read the work critically, and thus untold numbers are led astray by every misusage they read on the Internet, assuming that what they read is authoritative, and they replicate the abuse. Need an example? How many of you think that "impact" is a verb? It isn't. Or it wasn't. But so many politicians and pundits waxed on and on about how this or that was "impacting" our culture (rather than "having an impact" that the editors gave up and reclassified it as a verb, as well. It's a modifier, not a verb.

Why all this passion over what I admit might seem to be a bit of minutia? Pulitzer winner WH Auden, one of the great 20th century poets, put it better than I ever could, when he wrote in 1971:

"As a poet, there is only one political duty and  that is to defend one's language from corruption. And that is particularly serious now. It is being corrupted. When it is corrupted, people lose faith in what they hear, and that leads to violence."

So, please, enjoy your somewhat clever parlo(u)r game. All I ask is that you stop treating this like it's some kind of new lingustic development and advocating that the ridiculous proposed word "apronym" be included in our dictionaries. That would be akin to including the words "jenga" and "jarts" in the dictionaries just because they are popular games. Really, they're just  trademarks. "Jenga" may have meaning in another language, but to English, neither term is a word worthy of definition in the dictionary, and the term "apronyms" is even less so, given its dubious etymology.

Hugh
Defender of the English Language

[Angela]

Yes, on this site we mainly create apronyms as a game, and one which is fun and potentially educational for people of all ages. However, apronyms are often employed for more serious purposes. Some common apronyms are the USA PATRIOT act, Climate VISION, and those mentioned in the 'Meaningful acronyms' thread. Several people have asked on these forums for help creating apronyms as catchy names for their organisations or products -- see http://apronyms.com/category.php?ID=1985028

Whether 'apronym' falls into common usage and ends up in a dictionary (as some games* and brand names** have) is ultimately beyond our control. If you disagree with what is published in a dictionary, write to the makers of that dictionary and protest. Such a protest would raise an interesting question. If neither dictionaries nor the people who use a language can be considered authorities on that language, then who can be?

Footnotes:
* Off the top of my head, chess, hopscotch and bingo... I'm sure there are others.
** Hoover and Xerox come to mind. I am at work at the moment so I have only checked http://dictionary.com and http://m-w.com for these. If I remember, I'll check them in some printed dictionaries when I get home.

[Jeff]

Moreover, "apropos acronym" or any other phrase that would need to be repeated many times when discussing the USA PATRIOT act et alia becomes tiresome -- when there is something common for which there is no word, a word is needed.  In my experience, few words just "evolve" -- most are either coined by someone in need as neologisms or are adopted from another language by someone in need who knows another language or has a translative dictionary at hand.

The English language does need defense -- it is corrupted every day -- but a new word here and there to describe heretofore nameleless ideas, particularly if said words fit in with the totality of the language, can usually be harmless.

>>> On 10 May 2004 01:27:46 UTC, Angela wrote:

Yes, on this site we mainly create apronyms as a game, and one which is fun and potentially educational for people of all ages. However, apronyms are often employed for more serious purposes. Some common apronyms are the USA PATRIOT act, Climate VISION, and those mentioned in the 'Meaningful acronyms' thread. Several people have asked on these forums for help creating apronyms as catchy names for their organisations or products -- see http://apronyms.com/category.php?ID=1985028

Whether 'apronym' falls into common usage and ends up in a dictionary (as some games* and brand names** have) is ultimately beyond our control. If you disagree with what is published in a dictionary, write to the makers of that dictionary and protest. Such a protest would raise an interesting question. If neither dictionaries nor the people who use a language can be considered authorities on that language, then who can be?

Footnotes:
* Off the top of my head, chess, hopscotch and bingo... I'm sure there are others.
** Hoover and Xerox come to mind. I am at work at the moment so I have only checked http://dictionary.com and http://m-w.com for these. If I remember, I'll check them in some printed dictionaries when I get home.