Acronymy.net - Can we define every word as an acronym?

June 5, 2024 10:08 AM

Stone: Sturdy Tactile Object Natively Earth. Ghost: Ghouls Haunting Old Ships That Sank. Babies: Battling a Bottle in Endless Screams. Acronymy.net is a massively multiplayer collaborative online word game.
posted by AlSweigart (18 comments total)

Ahem, ghosts and ghouls are different sorts of creatures with long histories and rich cultures. They are not the same sort of being, deserve equal respect, and are rarely nautical. Or so I have hear from a concerned constituency.
posted by GenjiandProust at 10:13 AM on June 5 [3 favorites]

Obvious idea was unoriginal.
posted by indexy at 10:40 AM on June 5

This is a very fun idea.
posted by kristi at 11:14 AM on June 5 [1 favorite]

Word you’re looking for is tiavfi kristi.
posted by whatevernot at 11:25 AM on June 5 [1 favorite]

We used to do this in the early 1970s.
posted by bifurcated at 11:32 AM on June 5 [1 favorite]

metafilter embodies the angsty feelings i've learned to expressly reject
posted by logicpunk at 11:32 AM on June 5 [16 favorites]

Ahem, ghosts and ghouls are...

Metafilter: Making Every Thread A Feud, Insisting Labels Take Everything Rigorously.
posted by AlSweigart at 11:36 AM on June 5 [9 favorites]

I remember talking with my dad in the late 70's when he asked me "what does VSOP mean on this bottle?" and I replied Very Sour Old Plonk.
posted by unearthed at 11:41 AM on June 5

it's fun to make little poems with peoples names

Carpathian
Avalanches
Ravage,
Only
Leaving
Yearning
Necrophiliacs
posted by supermedusa at 11:44 AM on June 5

So is where lawmakers and scientists get their ideas for naming bills and studies?
posted by TedW at 12:17 PM on June 5

Why must you do these things to me? I had stuff to do.
posted by gelfin at 12:45 PM on June 5 [1 favorite]

It seems a little unfortunate -- especially for homonyms -- that adding a definition to an already defined word seems to replace the old definition, not supplement it (though you can click to see the definition history).
posted by nobody at 1:10 PM on June 5 [1 favorite]

TedW . . . Scientists will indeed work hard for their acronym win.
Autosomal Dominant Compelling Helioopthalmic Outburst (ACHOO) Syndrome is characterized by uncontrollable sneezing in response to the sudden exposure to bright light.[Pubmed]
posted by BobTheScientist at 1:15 PM on June 5 [1 favorite]

Scientists will indeed work hard for their acronym win.

Believe me, I am familiar with the phenomenon. It should be an Ig Nobel category.

But lawmakers really take the cake when it comes to tortured acronyms.
posted by TedW at 2:56 PM on June 5 [2 favorites]

It's strict. Canoe might stand for the Committee for Attribution of Naval Origins to Everything (as well you know), but the site tells me there are just too many words for the acronym.
posted by vincebowdren at 4:26 PM on June 5

Yeah, and not allowing apostrophes is also pretty limiting (but I guess that's so every word can be cleanly linked to a subsequent dictionary entry).
posted by nobody at 4:44 PM on June 5

A bunch of years ago, I played a version of this game at Metatopia, but it worked a little differently. I think everyone had to use the same initial letters to define different words. So I would say "Crustacean And Surly Testy Lonely Entity", and the person next to me would say "Crescent Attracting Steel To Line End", and we would each get points for correctly guessing, and for each person who correctly guessed ours. Doesn't seem to have been published, which is too bad because I would have bought it.
posted by novalis_dt at 4:57 PM on June 5 [2 favorites]

It's best to just call a spade a S.P.A.D.E. (Soil Preparation And Distribution Equipment)
posted by Acey at 7:05 AM on June 6 [1 favorite]