Acronym

== Etymology ==
The word ''acronym'' is formed from the [[Greek root]]s {{lang|grc-Latn|akro-}}, meaning 'height, summit, or tip', and {{lang|grc-Latn|-nym}}, 'name'.<ref name="Wiktionary">{{Cite web |url= https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/acronym#Usage_notes |title=acronym |website=en.wiktionary.org |access-date=January 28, 2020 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20200117042335/https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/acronym#Usage_notes |archive-date=January 17, 2020 |url-status=live}}</ref>{{unreliable source|certain=yes|Wikitionary like Wikipedia itself is [[WP:UGC]] and cannot be cited as a source here.|date=December 2023}} This [[neoclassical compound]] appears to have originated in [[German language|German]], with attestations for the German form {{lang|de|Akronym}} appearing as early as 1921.<ref name="Brockhaus_Handbuch">{{Cite encyclopedia |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=O9tFuwEACAAJ&pg=PA37 |via=Google Books |dictionary=Brockhaus Handbuch des Wissens in vier Bänden |title=Akronym |date=1921 |publisher=[[F. A. Brockhaus AG]] |location=Leipzig |language=de |volume=1 |page=37 |quote=Agfa (Aktien-Gesellschaft für Anilinfabrikation) |access-date=February 22, 2020}}</ref> Citations in English date to a 1940 translation of a novel by the German writer [[Lion Feuchtwanger]].<ref name="Paris_Gazette">{{Cite book |last=Feuchtwanger |first=Lion |author-link=Lion Feuchtwanger |title=Paris Gazette |publisher=Viking Press |date=1940 |isbn=1-135-37010-9 |location=New York |pages=665–66 |chapter=Chapter 47: Beasts of Prey |language=de |translator1-last=Muir |translator1-first=Willa |translator1-link=Willa Muir |translator-last2=Muir |translator-first2=Edwin |translator2-link=Edwin Muir |quote=His first glance at the ''Paris German News'' told Wiesener that this new paper was nothing like the old ''P.G.''. 'They can call it the ''P.G.N.'' if they like', he thought, 'but that's the only difference. Pee-gee-enn; what's the word for words like that, made out of initials? My memory is beginning to fail me. Just the other day there was a technical expression I couldn't remember. I must be growing old. ''P.G.'' or ''P.G.N.'', it's six of one and half a dozen of the other.&nbsp;... Pee-gee-enn. It's an acronym, that's what it is. That's what they call words made up of initials. So I remember it after all; that's at least something.}}</ref>