We love acronyms, letter abbreviations or initials for popular “sayings” and names which are pronounced as a word. Anacronyms are acronyms which are so old or insular (SPQR from the Roman Empire, SCUBA and COBOL) that no one even recalls what the letters stood for.
Acronyms have been inserted into our language via the Internet. They are fun to use, too. Many, like MOAB (Mother Of All Bombs), SNAFU, TDY and PDQ have a military background. We can tell our grandkids that we used to eat SPAM (Something Posing As Meat)! (Only some of us). Some acronyms are called pseudo-blends! UNIFEM is one of these…..and it doesn’t mean feminists united (too bad), it means United Nations Development Fund For Women.
So, what does this have to do with Turning Out The Lights With A Smile? You can’t even get through a conversation with a Millennial or Boomer without hearing OMG, TMI, DIY, BYOB, FYI, LOL (Laugh Out Loud), or JSYK (Just So You Know). Text messages are full of these! We need to be up to date on the current jargon because we have FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) (especially with our teenage grandchildren). The current most important “justification” for acronyms is for the abbreviation of messages to limit Tweets to 140 characters! We certainly can’t talk anymore! Why waste the time?
The most up to date acronyms take the place of phrases. Here are three which are pronounced as words: WAYTTP (What Are You Trying To Prove?), IMBOBINDY (I May Be Old But I’m Not Dead Yet) and WIZYWIG (What You See Is What You Get!).
Don’t you think that YOLO (You Only Live Once!) should become our motto? Enjoy life today, even if we have to use an occasional acronym!
Turning Out the Lights with a Smile 