Where does “acronym” come from?

Acronym derives from German Akronym, which combines Ancient Greek ἄκρον and Ancient Greek ᾰ̓́κρος meaning "peak" or "end," referring to the initial letters of words.

acronym (English): An abbreviation formed by the initial letters of...

Definitions

  1. An abbreviation formed by the initial letters of...

Ancestry of “acronym”, step by step

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1GermanAkronymacronym
2Norwegian Bokmål-onymonym
3Ancient GreekὄνυμαDoric and Aeolic form of ὄνομᾰ
4Ancient Greekὄνομαname; fame; noun, in the wide sense: referring to...
5Proto-Indo-Europeanh₁nómn̥name
6Proto-Indo-Europeanh₃neh₃-to name

Words derived from “acronym”

Every word from Proto-Indo-European h₃neh₃- →