A backronym or bacronym is a phrase constructed purposely, such that an acronym can be formed to a specific desired word. Backronyms may be invented with serious or humorous intent, or may be a type of false or folk etymology.

The word is a combination (a portmanteau or a blend) of backward and acronym, and has been defined as a "reverse acronym".^[1] Its earliest known citation in print is as "bacronym" in the November 1983 edition of the Washington Post monthly neologism contest. The newspaper quoted winning reader "Meredith G. Williams of Potomac" defining it as the "same as an acronym, except that the words were chosen to fit the letters".^[1]

Differences from acronyms[link]

An acronym is a word derived from the initial letters of the words of a phrase:^[2] For example, the word radar comes from "Radio Detection and Ranging".^[3]

By contrast, a backronym is constructed by taking an existing word already in common usage, and creating a new phrase using the letters in the word as the initial letters of the words in the phrase. For example, the United States Department of Justice assigns to their Amber Alert program the meaning "America's Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response",^[4] although the term originally referred to Amber Hagerman, a 9-year-old abducted and murdered in Texas in 1996.

Examples[link]

Backronyms can be constructed for educational purposes, for example to form mnemonics. An example of such a mnemonic is the Apgar score, used to assess the health of newborn babies. The rating system was devised by and named after Virginia Apgar, but ten years after the initial publication, the backronym APGAR was coined in the US as a mnemonic learning aid: Appearance, Pulse, Grimace, Activity, and Respiration.^[5]

Alcoholics Anonymous and other 12-step programs use backronyms as teaching tools, similar to slogans such as "one day at a time", or "Let go, let God", but often with an ironic edge. For example, a slip may be expanded as "Sobriety Losing Its Priority",^[6] and denial as "Don't Even Notice I Am Lying".^[7]

Backronyms are also created as jokes, often expressing consumer loyalties or frustration. For example, the name of the restaurant chain Arby's is a play on "RB", referring to "roast beef" as well as the company's founders, the Raffel brothers. An advertising campaign in the 1980s created a backronym with the slogan "America’s Roast Beef, Yes Sir!"^[8]

Many companies or products spawn multiple humorous backronyms, with positive connotations asserted by supporters or negative ones by detractors. For example, Ford, the car company founded by Henry Ford, was said to stand for "First On Race Day" among aficionados^[9] but disparaged as "Fix Or Repair Daily" and "Found On Road, Dead" by critics.^[10]

NASA named its ISS treadmill the Combined Operational Load-Bearing External Resistance Treadmill (COLBERT) after Stephen Colbert. The backronym was a lighthearted compromise in recognition of the comedian's ability to sway NASA's online vote for the naming of an ISS module.^[11]

False acronyms[link]

Sometimes the backronym is so commonly heard that it is widely but incorrectly believed to have been used in the formation of the word, and amounts to a false etymology or an urban legend. Examples include posh, an adjective describing stylish items or members of the upper class. A popular story derives the word as an acronym from "port out, starboard home", referring to first class cabins shaded from the sun on outbound voyages east and homeward heading voyages west.^[12] The word's actual etymology is unknown, but it may relate to Romani påš xåra ("half-penny") or to Urdu safed-pōśh (one who wears "white robes"), a derogatory term for wealthy people.^[13]

Other examples include the brand name Adidas, named for company founder Adolf "Adi" Dassler but falsely believed to be an acronym for "All day I dream about sports";^[14] Wiki, said to mean "what I know is",^[15] but in fact derived from the Hawaiian phrase wiki wiki meaning "fast";^[16] or Yahoo!, sometimes claimed to mean "yet another hierarchical officious oracle", but in fact chosen because Yahoo's founders liked the word's meaning of "rude, unsophisticated, uncouth."^[17] The name of sport golf was also incorrectly rumored to have been based on the backronym "gentlemen only, ladies forbidden."^[18]

The distress signal "SOS" is often believed to be an abbreviation for "save our ship" or "save our souls". In fact, it was chosen because it has a simple Morse code representation — three dots, three dashes, then three more dots – which becomes three-dits/three-dahs/three-dits, run together as if it were a single letter.^{[citation needed]} Likewise, its predecessor "CQD" is often thought to be an acronym of "come quick, danger", "come quickly distress", "come quick — drowning!", or some variation on these. In fact, it was chosen because "CQ" (from the "sécu" of the French "sécurité") was used as a general radio call (i.e. to all who can hear the message). The "D" was appended to form a distress signal, indeed coming from the word "distress".^[19][20]

As lexicographer Jesse Sheidlower points out in his book The F-Word, acronyms were rare in the English language prior to the twentieth century, and most etymologies of common words or phrases that suggest origin from an acronym are false.^[21]

See also[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Backronym expansions of ACRONYM (Acronym Finder)
• Online Backronym Generator

Johnny Clegg
Johnny Clegg at la fête de l'Humanité, France, 2007
Background information
Birth name	Jonathan Clegg
Also known as	Johnny Clegg Le Zoulou Blanc
Born	(1953-06-07) 7 June 1953 (age 59) Bacup, Lancashire, England
Genres	Mbaqanga, Afro-pop
Instruments	Vocals, guitar, concertina
Years active	1980–present
Labels	Capitol Records
Associated acts	Juluka, Savuka
Website	johnnyclegg.com
Past members
Sipho Mchunu (Juluka), Dudu Mntowaziwayo Ndlovu (Savuka)

Jonathan "Johnny" Clegg (born 7 June 1953) is a musician from South Africa, who has recorded and performed with his bands Juluka and Savuka. Sometimes called Le Zoulou Blanc ("The White Zulu"), he is an important figure in South African popular music history, with songs that mix Zulu with English lyrics, and African with various Western European music styles.

Early life and career[link]

Clegg was born in Bacup, Lancashire, to an English father and a Rhodesian mother. Clegg's mother's family were Jewish immigrants from Lithuania and Poland,^[1] and Clegg had a "secular Jewish" upbringing. Already in his youth, Clegg, a white, English-speaking person who was raised in the U.K., Israel, Rhodesia (present-day Zimbabwe), Zambia, and South Africa, became interested in Zulu street music and took part in traditional Zulu dance competitions.

As a young man, in the early stages of his musical career, he combined his music with the study of anthropology, a subject which he also taught for a while at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, where he was influenced, among others, by the work of David Webster, a social anthropologist who was assassinated in 1989.

In 1969, Clegg formed the first prominent racially mixed South African band, Juluka, with gardener and Zulu musician Sipho Mchunu. Because it was illegal for racially mixed bands to perform in South Africa during the apartheid era, their first album Universal Men^[2] received no air play on the state owned SABC, but it became a word-of-mouth hit.

Juluka's / Clegg's music was both implicitly and explicitly political; not only was the fact of the success of the band (which openly celebrated African culture in a bi-racial band) a thorn in the flesh of a political system based on racial separation, the band also produced some explicitly political songs. For example, the album "Work for All" (which includes a song with the same title) picked up on South African trade union slogans in the mid-80's. Even more explicit was the later Savuka album Third World Child in 1987, with songs like "Asimbonanga" ("We haven't seen him"),^[3] which called for the release of Nelson Mandela, and which called out the names of three representative martyrs of the South African liberation struggle - Steve Biko, Victoria Mxenge, and Neil Aggett.

As a result, Clegg and other band members were arrested several times and concerts routinely broken up.^[4]

Successes[link]

Juluka were able to tour in Europe, and had two platinum and five gold albums, becoming an international success. Juluka was disbanded in 1986, when Mchunu was asked by his father to return home to look after the family cattle, although Mchunu made some solo recordings afterwards. Clegg went on to form his second inter-racial band, Savuka, continuing to blend African music with European influences. The Savuka albums Shadow Man (which sold 250,000 copies within a week after its release went on to sell more than 1,000,000 copies in France alone),^[5] and "Cruel Crazy, Beautiful World" were dealing with more romantic topics, including "Cruel Crazy Beautiful World", where a father gives a message to his son, "Dela" where the essence of love is explored, and more politically focused songs, such as "Warsaw 1943" and "One (Hu)'man one vote" which go back to political messages. Third World Child and Shadow Man occupied 1st and 2nd position respectively in France and became the most successful foreign band in France and Shadow Man topped the charts in Montréal, Québec, Canada.^[5] At the height of the band's success in 1988, Michael Jackson had to cancel his show in Lyon, France, as he attracted a smaller audience than Johnny Clegg and Savuka. A newspaper headline in France read "white man singing black music, out sells black man singing white music"^[5] Their last album Heat, Dust and Dreams was nominated for a Grammy Award for best album in the category of World Music.^[5]

Touring[link]

Briefly reunited with Mchunu in the mid 1990s, Clegg reformed Juluka and toured throughout the world including a tour of the USA in 1996, on which King Sunny Ade was the opening act.

The name Juluka is based on the Zulu word for "sweat", and Savuka is based on the Zulu word for "we have risen" or "we have awakened".^{[citation needed]}

His song "Scatterlings of Africa" was featured on the soundtrack to the 1988 Oscar winning film, Rain Man. The track gave him his only entry in the UK Singles Chart to date, reaching #75 in May 1987.^[6]

Savuka's song "Dela" was featured on the soundtrack of the 1997 film George of the Jungle and its 2003 sequel, while "Great Heart" was the title song for the 1992 film Jock of the Bushveld. "Cruel, Crazy, Beautiful World" was featured in the 1990 film Opportunity Knocks and 1991 film Career Opportunities. "Great Heart" was also the end credits song for the 2000 Disney movie Whispers: An Elephant's Tale.^{[citation needed]} Jimmy Buffett recorded "Great Heart" for his 1988 album Hot Water. In 2002 Clegg provided several songs and incidental background music for Jane Goodall's "Wild Chimpanzees" DVD. Included in the extras on the disc are rare scenes of Clegg in the recording studio.^[7]

He co-wrote Diggah Tunnah with Lebo M. for Disney's 2004 direct-to-video animated film The Lion King 1½.

Clegg and his band often make an international tour during May–August (South African winter). However, the tours are usually limited to France and surrounding countries. In June 2004, Johnny Clegg toured North America for the first time in over eight years, doing 22 concerts in one month. Even though they had no albums for sale in North America during those eight years, and no significant media coverage, they filled most of their venues.

Clegg returned to North America with his band in July 2005, with dates booked throughout the U.S. and Canada. His new album One Life was remixed at Real World Studios in Bath, England, and released on October 30, 2006 in the UK.^{[citation needed]}

In 2008 Clegg's son, Jesse Clegg, displaying a style markedly different from that of his father, released his debut album called "When I Wake Up". As a rock musician the younger Clegg has quickly built up a following, with the album being nominated for two South African Music Awards.^[8]

Clegg toured Europe and North America in 2011.^[9] He has also announced that he will play in Western Sahara city of Dakhla, which has caused a campaign of rejection, as that concert is considered as a support for Moroccan occupation of Western Sahara.^[10]

Recognition[link]

• Clegg was awarded the Chevalier des Arts et Lettres (Knight of Arts and Letters) by the French Government in 1991.
• In 2004, he was voted 23rd in the SABC3's Great South Africans.
• In 2007, Clegg received an honorary doctorate in music from the University of the Witwatersrand.^[11]

Bibliography[link]

• Clegg, Jonathan (1981). Phil Bonner. ed. ""Ukubuyisa Isidumbu", "Bringing back the body": An examination of the ideology of vengeance in the Msinga and Mpofana Rural Locations, 1822-1944". Working Papers in Southern African Studies (Johannesburg: Ravan Press) 2. 
• Clegg, Jonathan (1981). Andrew Tracey. ed. "The Music of Zulu Immigrant Workers in Johannesburg: A Focus on Concertina and Guitar". Papers presented at the Symposium on Ethnomusicology (Grahamstown: International Library of African Music). 
• Clegg, Jonathan (1982). Andrew Tracey. ed. "Towards an understanding of African Dance: The Zulu Isishameni Style". Papers read at Second Symposium on Ethnomusicology, 24–26 September 1981, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa (Grahamstown: Institute of Social and Economic Research). 

Discography[link]

Albums[link]

Studio albums

• 1977: World Network 9 (Duo Juluka / Ladysmith Black Mambazo, released 1992)
• 1979: Universal Men (Juluka)
• 1981: African Litany (Juluka)
• 1982: Ubuhle Bemvelo (Juluka)
• 1982: Scatterlings (Juluka)
• 1983: Work For All (Juluka)
• 1984: Stand Your Ground (Juluka)
• 1984: Musa Ukungilandela (Juluka)
• 1984: The International Tracks (Juluka)
• 1985: Third World Child (solo version) (Johnny Clegg)
• 1987: Third World Child (Savuka)
• 1988: Shadow Man (Savuka)
• 1990: Cruel, Crazy Beautiful World (Savuka)
• 1991: Scatterlings of Africa (re-recording by Savuka)
• 1993: Heat, Dust and Dreams (Savuka)
• 1997: Crocodile Love / Ya Vuka Inkunzi (Juluka)
• 1998: Le Rock Zoulou de Johnny Clegg & Sipho Mchunu
• 2002: New World Survivor (Johnny Clegg)
• 2006: Heart of the Dancer (Johnny Clegg)
• 2006: One Life (Johnny Clegg)
• 2010: Human (Johnny Clegg)

Live albums

• 1986: The Good Hope Concerts
• 1994: Live And Rarities (Savuka)
• 2003: A South African Story - Live At The Nelson Mandela Theatre (Johnny Clegg)
• 2003: Best of Live (Johnny Clegg)

DVD

• 2003: Live! and more...
• 2006: Johnny Clegg Live at the Nelson Mandela Theatre
• 2010: Johnny Clegg 30th Anniversary Concert at Emmarentia Dam (in production)

Soundtracks

• 1992: The Power of One (Johnny Clegg)

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official Website
• Official Johnny Clegg community site
• World Music Central biography
• Scatterlings: a fan-run Yahoo-group that discusses various aspects of Johnny Clegg and his music
• In My African Dream: the Johnny Clegg Discography, and more...
• Magazine article (1990) on Johnny Clegg and how his work was shaped by the South Africa context
• Newspaper article looking back at the first Juluka album 21 years after it was released
• Newspaper article about new album 'One Life'