recursive acronym

2 definitions found

recursive acronym - Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (26 May 2007) :

  recursive acronym
  
     <convention> A hackish (and especially MIT) tradition is to
     choose acronyms and abbreviations that refer humorously to
     themselves or to other acronyms or abbreviations.  The classic
     examples were two MIT editors called EINE ("EINE Is Not
     Emacs") and ZWEI ("ZWEI Was EINE Initially").  More
     recently, there is a Scheme compiler called LIAR (Liar
     Imitates Apply Recursively), and GNU stands for "GNU's Not
     Unix!" - and a company with the name CYGNUS, which expands
     to "Cygnus, Your GNU Support".
  
     See also mung.
  
     [Jargon File]
  
     (1995-04-28)
  

recursive acronym - Jargon File (4.4.4, 14 Aug 2003) :

  recursive acronym
   n.
  
     A hackish (and especially MIT) tradition is to choose
     acronyms/abbreviations that refer humorously to themselves or to
  other
     acronyms/abbreviations. The original of the breed may have been TINT
     ("TINT Is Not TECO"). The classic examples were two MIT editors
  called
     EINE ("EINE Is Not EMACS") and ZWEI ("ZWEI Was EINE Initially"). More
     recently, there is a Scheme compiler called LIAR (Liar Imitates Apply
     Recursively), and GNU (q.v., sense 1) stands for "GNU's Not Unix!"
     -- and a company with the name Cygnus, which expands to "Cygnus, Your
     GNU Support" (though Cygnus people say this is a backronym). The
  GNU
     recursive acronym may have been patterned on XINU, "XINU Is Not Unix"
     -- a particularly nice example because it is a mirror image, a
     backronym, and a recursive acronym. See also mung, EMACS.