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A recursive acronym (or occasionally recursive initialism, and sometimes recursive backronym) is an abbreviation that refers to itself in the expression for which it stands. Due to the nature of the English language, which would infinitely recurse left-recursive phrases, recursive abbreviations are circular definitions.

In computing, an early tradition in the hacker community (especially at MIT) was to choose acronyms and abbreviations that referred humorously to themselves or to other abbreviations. Perhaps the earliest example in this context, from about 1977 or 1978, is TINT ("TINT Is Not TECO"), an editor for MagicSix. This inspired the two MIT Lisp Machine editors called EINE ("EINE Is Not Emacs") and ZWEI ("ZWEI Was EINE Initially"). These were followed by Richard Stallman's ever popular GNU (GNU's not UNIX.)

Noted efforts include:

• Allegro — Allegro Low LEvel Game ROutines (note: the acronym was originally Atari Low LEvel Game ROutines until development shifted away from the Atari ST)
• AMARA - Amara Means A Recursive Acronym
• apsfilter - Apsfilter Prints So Fine, It Leads To Extraordinary Results
• ARIA - ARIA Really Is Awesome (Reference to game)
• BUMP — Bump Up My Post
• CAVE — Cave Automatic Virtual Environment
• Cygnus — Cygnus, Your GNU Support
• ELLE - ELLE Looks Like Emacs
• FIAIF - FIAIF Is An Intelligent Firewall
• FIG - Fig Is Good
• GEECS — GEECS for Electronics Engineering Computers and Science
• giFT — giFT: Internet File Transfer
• GiNaC — GiNaC is Not a CAS
• GNE — GNE's Not an Encyclopedia
• GNU — GNU's Not Unix
• HERBIS — Herbis is the Erudite Recorded Botanical Information Synthesizer
• JOE — Joe's Own Editor
• KIEL — Kiel Integrated Environment for Layout
• LAME — LAME Ain't an MP3 Encoder
• LIAR, a Scheme compiler — LIAR Imitates Apply Recursively
• LINE — LINE is Not an Emulator
• LiVES - LiVES is a Video Editing System
• MICO — MICO Is COrba
• MINC — MINC Is Not C
• MINCE — MINCE is Not Complete Emacs
• MINDY — MINDY Is Not Dylan Yet (MINDY interpreter of the Dylan language)
• MiNT — MiNT is Not TOS (later changed to "MiNT is Now TOS")
• MINT — MINT Is Not TRAC
• Mung — Mung Until No Good
• Nagios — Nagios Ain't Gonna Insist On Sainthood
• NiL — NiL Isn't Liero
• PHP — PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor (originally "Personal Home Page" tools, officially changed for PHP 3)
• PINE — PINE Is Not Elm
• PIPS — PIPS Is POSIX on Symbian
• PLD — PLD Linux Distribution (originally "Polish(ed) Linux Distribution")
• PNG — PNG's Not GIF (graphics format, officially Portable Network Graphics)
• RPM — RPM Package Manager (originally "Red Hat Package Manager")
• RNP Arrays - RNP (Ratios) are Not PDN.
• SAMI — SAMI is Another Model of the Ionosphere
• SCInterface — SCInterface Control Interface
• Scaled — Scaled Composites: Advanced Link to Efficient Development
• SIG - SIG: Image Gallery
• SPARQL — SPARQL Protocol And RDF Query Language
• TIARA — TIARA Is A Recursive Acronym
• TiLP — TiLP is a Linking Program
• TINA — Tina Is No Acronym
• TINT — Tint Is Not Tetris
• TTP — The TTP Project (From Dilbert)
• TINN — Tinn Is Not Notepad
• TinNS — TinNS is not a Neocron Server
• TRM — TRM Recognizes Music
• UIRA — UIRA Isn't a Recursive Acronym
• WAM - WAM Account Manager
• Wine — Wine Is Not an Emulator
• Xinha — Xinha is not html area
• XINU — Xinu Is Not Unix
• XNA — XNA's Not Acronymed, a Microsoft game development framework
• YAML — YAML Ain't Markup Language (initially "Yet Another Markup Language")
• YLEM - YLEM Lisp Environment for Music (a music composition system written in Common Lisp)
• ZINC — ZINC is not commercial, a free database for virtual screening
• Zinf — Zinf Is Not FreeA*p
• Zombie — Zombie-Oriented Machine-Being Interface Engine´

• The GNU Hurd project is named with a mutually recursive acronym: "Hurd" stands for "Hird of Unix-Replacing Daemons," and "Hird" stands for "Hurd of Interfaces Representing Depth."

• The GNUBrain project is another mutually recursive acronym: "Brain" stands for "Brian relates any independent node" and "Brian" itself stands for "Brain implements a network".

• RPM and PHP were originally conventional initialisms which were later redefined recursively. They are not true backronyms, however, as the names were already abbreviations and are pronounced as initials rather than as words.

• Jini claims the distinction of being the first recursive anti-acronym. 'Jini Is Not Initials'. It might, however, be more properly termed an anti-Backronym because the term "Jini" never stood for anything in the first place. The more recent XNA on the other hand, was deliberately designed that way.

• Most recursive acronyms are recursive on the first letter, however YOPY, 'Your own personal YOPY' is recursive on the last letter.

Recursive acronyms are not limited to computing terminology. For example, some companies have been named or renamed in this way:

• BWIA — BWIA West Indies Airways (formerly British West Indian Airways)
• GES — GES Exposition Services (formerly Greyhound Exposition Services)
• LINK (UK) — Link Interchange NetworK, the UK ATM switching organisation.
• OIL - Oil India Limited
• SAAB — Saab Automobile Aktiebolaget (Formerly Svenska Aeroplan Aktiebolaget.)
• TAP Air Portugal — in Portuguese, however, TAP is an acronym for Transportes Aéreos de Portugal and is not recursive
• VISA — Visa International Service Association

There are also some organizations that employ recursive acronyms:

• MOMS Club — MOMS Offering Moms Support
• NEW - New Era Wrestling
• RESPECT — Respect, Equality, Socialism, Peace, Environmentalism, Community, and Trade unionism (also a backronym)

• In Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid, published 1979, Douglas Hofstadter uses the acronym GOD, 'GOD Over Djinn'.
• KOS-MOS — Kosmos Obey Strategical Multiple Operation Systems, from the video game series Xenosaga.
• In the BBC series Look Around You, a parody of British educational television programs from the Seventies, MATHS was said to stand for "Mathematical Anti-Telharsic Harfatum Septomin".
• A recursive initialism appeared in a Dilbert comic strip, in which Dilbert states that the TTP project refers to The TTP Project (this is also a triply-redundant case of RAS syndrome).
• In Twin Peaks, Laura Palmer figured that her nemesis, Bob, was an acronym for Beware of Bob
• In the Archie Comics series Sonic the Hedgehog, the digital son of Eggman is named A.D.A.M., which has two meanings, one of which is "A.D.A.M. Determines Anonymous' Movements".
• In an episode of M*A*S*H, Radar O'Reilly refers to A.W.O.L as "A.W.O.L. without leave".

This article is based in part on the Jargon File, which is in the public domain.

Look up recursive acronym in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• RAS syndrome (Redundant Acronym Syndrome syndrome)
• Acronyms
• Backronyms and list of backronyms
• Anti-acronym