this post was submitted on 28 Sep 2025
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Sorry, but JIF was already taken by a brand of peanutbutter for almost 30 years before the Graphics Interchange Format was created.
Never mind that when written out like that, the first word of the acronym tells you how to say it. Otherwise we'd be pronouncing that word like "giraffe-icks."
I am 70% in agreement on that. It would be 100%, but someone once pointed out to me that SCUBA is pronounced differently than the words making up the acronym. It's not "oonderwater." Maybe we should say "Skuhbuh" instead of "scoobuh." 🤣
Fair. It's just another SNAFU/snaffuh.
And how do you pronounce lazer or fubar for that matter?
The first one is "Pew! Pew!", while the second only gets used when I'm thrown out for being too drunk & disorderly.
(Which is to say "never" since I don't drink.)
But the "U" is in the middle. Don't acronyms tend to follow something like "the first letter is pronounced like the word it is based on, then the rest of it is pronounced in the way which sounds like the 'coolest' or 'easiest to say' word"?
You expect too much out of English. Spelling and pronunciation rules are at best casual suggestions with dozens of exceptions.
Acronyms have no rules.
RADAR is Radio Detection and Ranging.
Where is the first A?
The rule is that if you can make it sound like a word from mostly starting letters you have an acronym and that word can be pronounced however. If you cant and just have to spell out it's letters like CIA its an initialism.