15 Everyday Words That Are Actually Acronyms or Abbreviations

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15 Everyday Words That Are Actually Acronyms or Abbreviations

The PIN in “PIN number” is an acronym that stands for “Personal Input Number,” so if you say “PIN number” you’re actually saying “Personal Input Number Number.” However, unfortunately, if you’re one of those people who leaps at the chance to point that out every time you can, you’re an A-hole — an abbreviation in which the A represents the word “ass.”

ATM machine is the same. Yeah, sometimes someone will refer to putting their PIN number into an ATM machine, and however infuriating it might be, you have to STFU.

Acronyms, in which the initial letters of a name or phrase form a shorter word, and abbreviations, in which a word or phrase is shortened, are all over the place, but a lot of them are so frequently used that it’s easy to not realize they’re shortened forms of something more chunky.

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Scuba: Chunky to Wear, Clunky to Say in Full

CRACKED The second-best kind of diving takes its name from the equipment involved, a Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus.

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Captcha: We See What You Did There

CRACKED I'm not robot They really worked hard when coming up for a name for those prove you're not a robot tests, coming up with the kinda cheating name Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart.

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Sim Card: No Green Diamond to Be Seen

CRACKED While the Sims are short for simulated, the card in your phone is a Subscriber Identification Module. Both die in swimming pools.

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The USA Patriot Act: Great Work, Anonymous Government Person

CRACKED Someone in the government worked really hard on this one - in full it's known as the Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism (USA PATRIOT) Act. Well done!

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Base Jumping: Too Radical Not to Shorten

CRACKED The none-more-extreme pastime of people who like getting X-rays is an acronym for the four types of structure they parachute off: Building, Antenna, Span or Earth. Span should be bridge really, but then it'd be Babe Jumping, which is different.

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Care Package: More Complicated Than You’d Think

CRACKED Care package makes sense as a name - a package sent because you care. Straightforward as fuck. But it isn't! The phrase originated with the Cooperative for American Remittances to Europe After World War II, later renamed Cooperative for Assistance and Relief Everywhere.

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Nabisco: Mindblowing Cookie Origins

CRACKED = 22 - = CHEESE - NOT FILLING Everything NABISCO NE REAL podic butter RITZ NABISCO CHEESE RITZ SAMPLE S NABISCO RI RITZ RITZ CRACKERS RITZ CRACKERS RITZ CRACKERS b bits SANDVECHES Everything Everything CH NATURAL FLAVOR CHEESE WITH OTHER NATURAL FLAVOR DAAA ... SHOWION NATURAL FLAVOR WIT MY 13 SAMSWICHES CELL 360g NET WT 117 OZ (390g) FRUING MADE WITH E THE 160 NET WT BBOZ THE is 4.44 ... #403545 LOW PRICE on - 4.44 3.33 LOW PRICE RIT FOR honey wheat SAFT F ADVANTAGE RITZ 3.33 RITZ - card SAVE $1.11 ADVANTAGE SAVINGS! RITZ RITZ NASISCO honey wheat CRACKERS - - honey RITZ wheat CRACKERS 24

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