In an article in the newspaper tonight about something that is near and dear to my heart, (where did we get that phrase anyway?) it states:

"Western New York's snowmobile trails, most of which are closed after an insurance snafu, are expected to reopen as early as this weekend..."

Now, I knew that at one time snafu stood for s(ituation) n(ormal) a(ll) f(***ed) u(p). But until I looked in my dictionary, I didn't know that it had become a word on its own. "Slang ~~ A chaotic or confused situation.".

Are there other acronyms that have become self-standing words?

Plenty!

As Michael Quinion has observed more than once, words created from acroynyms are a relatively recent phenomenon (rare before the 20th Century) but there are still many such.

Radar; Laser; Acorn; Abta; Iata.

"The Times" gives implicit approval to words thus formed when it spells them with upper and lower case. Thus, until a few years ago, ABTA (The Association of British Travel Agents) was shown as an acronym; now it is shown as a word.

Some such words are now so common that people do not realise that they were oroginally acronyms

Richard English

Snafu is only one of a fairly long list of acronyms of this sort, popularized during the WW2 era, but it does seem to be the one which has shown the most staying power. Others include:

Tarfu - Things are really fouled up. (I'll use "fouled" in place of the more commonly used "f***ed.")

Tafumtu - Things are fouled up more than usual.

Fubar - Fouled up beyond all recognition (My favorite! When I was in the service, this one was actually used by maintenance personnel in official documentation until some commander put a stop to it, not out of any sense of propriety but because it was imprecise.)

Janfu - Joint Army-Navy foul-up

There are at least 5 or 6 more but these are the only ones to come to mind at the moment.

After posting this last night, I went to bed thinking about it. (Bob, maybe we can get joint psychiatric help?) Anyway, some of the most common ones would have to be scuba, asap, yuppy, and dink.

SUSFU - Situation Unchanged: Still F*cked Up
FUBB - F*cked Up Beyond Belief
FUMTU - F*cked Up More Than Usual
SAPFU - Surpassing All Previous F*ck-Ups

And a personals favorite:
FUJIGMO - F*ck You, Jack; I Got My Orders

[This message was edited by shufitz on Sat Jan 11th, 2003 at 19:38.]

Didn't Snafu originate in the novel Catch-22? I'm not sure.

quote:

---

Originally posted by museamuse:
Didn't Snafu originate in the novel _Catch-22_? I'm not sure.

---

'Fraid not, m. "Snafu" was used in the WW2 era while "Catch-22," a book about that era, was written much later.

Not that you asked but "Catch-22" is my all-time favorite Number One novel of all time and one I reread every four or five years or so. The movie missed the mark but the book is a treasure beyond words.