recursive acronym

English

Etymology

recursive + acronym, originating in early hacker culture and later popularized by Douglas Hofstadter.

Noun

Examples

recursive acronym (plural recursive acronyms)

  1. An acronym in which a word (often the first) of the phrase represented by the acronym is the acronym itself.
    • 1983 April, Douglas R. Hofstadter, “Metamagical Themas”, in Scientific American, →ISSN, page 20:
      I used the odd variable name “tato”, mentioning that it is a recursive acronym standing for “tato (and tato only)”. Using this fact you can expand “tato” any number of times.

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Further reading

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