16 Jan
2017
16 Jan
'17
3:08 p.m.
On Mon, 16 Jan 2017, allison wrote:
That lead to WYSIWYG pronounced as wizzywhig, from the
former what you see is
what you get. There were variations
as well.
Good point!
The phrase is obviously older, and probably much older than Flip Wilson.
BUT, the acronym is much more recent. I first heard it as an acronym from
Apple people, but I don't contest Allison's contention that DEC had
already been using the acronym.
A phrase needs to get a certain level of recognition, as a phrase rather
than a description, before it gets adopted as an acronym.
Obvious exceptions include "contrived" or "back" acronyms
(bac[k]ronyms),
where words are chosen to try to fit an acronym that was already chosen.