RAS syndrome
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RAS syndrome (Redundant Acronym Syndrome syndrome) is the common tendency to use one of the words which make up an acronym or initialism as well as the abbreviation itself, thus in effect repeating that word. "RAS syndrome" is itself an ironic self-referential example, coined in 2001 in the New Scientist.New Scientist, Issue 2285, 7 April 2001, pg 108 "Feedback" Usenet users coined PIN number syndrome and the ironic PNS syndromeUsenet group alt.possessive.its.has.no.apostrophe; other nonce coinages continue to arise. The terms themselves are occasionally referred to as RAP phrases (Redundant Acronym Phrases phrases).[Redundant Acronym Phrases] - a collection of common examples of such phrases.
Technically, this redundancy is a form of tautology, and in many cases a pleonasm. Most criticism of it is lighthearted or pedantic, and the majority of speakers find most instances unexceptionable.
Examples
Doubly redundant examples are also sometimes heard, such as "personal PIN number" or even "personal identification PIN number" and "CSS style sheets", and even more redundancy is possible. In one Dilbert comic strip, Dilbert states that the "TTP" project refers to "The TTP Project" (which is also an example of a recursive acronym).The phenomenon also occurs with people whose initials form a nickname used in place of their forename, such as Jeb Bush: Jeb stands for John Ellis Bush; likewise the British politician Rab Butler, and professional skateboarder Bam Margera (Brandon Adam Margera). Another example of this is on the television show Arrested Development, in which the character whose full name is George Oscar Bluth II goes by GOB Bluth. A questionable one is the musician KT Tunstall, whose initials, KT, are both an abbreviation of her name and a play on words with her first name, Kate. This only applies where the initials form an acronym as opposed to an initialism; nobody would say JFK Kennedy.
List
Some of the most common examples include:Not redundant
Examples appearing here may appear to be redundant but are actually not, for the given reasons:Reasons for use
The most obvious reason for using an acronym in this way is that it has become (or been mistaken for) a word in its own right; the speaker may not know the original expansion, or may know it as the etymology but consider it irrelevant to modern usage. One acronym which has become a word is laser, which originally stood for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation, but has become so much a part of common vocabulary that a verb form, "to lase", meaning to emit or make use of a laser beam, is in use as a product of back-formation.All these cases conform to a specific pattern. The repeated word is the general class to which the object belongs (generally the main noun of the phrase). A "PIN number" is a type of number, an "ATM machine" a type of machine, a "RAID array" a type of array, etc. The rule for usage is both consistent and predictable. For this reason, some, including many prescriptivists, find objection to the usage to be a mere shibboleth.
One reason to deliberately use some examples is that they have become so common that not to use them would be more confusing. The sentence "I can't remember my PIN" when spoken does not distinguish between a pin and the acronym PIN (and some dialects of English even have identical pronunciations for "pin" and "pen"). People are simply more used to hearing "pin number" and, though redundant, it is widely accepted.
Some occurrences are in the interest of clarity; for example, when discussing a mainframe computer's requirements, the acronym "AC" might refer to air conditioning or alternating current depending on the context; the redundant phrase "AC current" can be used to distinguish them. Also, the phrase "AC current" distinguishes from "AC voltage" (which, incidentally, is itself an acronym of dubious meaning: "alternating current voltage"). The phrase "CSS style sheets" can also reduce confusion, where in certain contexts CSS could also refer to the content-scrambling system used on DVD Video titles. In addition, in many technical contexts, it is highly desirable to be as specific as possible, even at the cost of some off-putting redundancy. Combining the acronym with a noun identifying its class achieves clarity with economy of space and time. However, many people believe that if clarity is sufficiently important to justify the redundancy, the full phrase, rather than the acronym, should be used.
A final justification is that many acronyms and initialisms are trademarks, and trademark law generally treats trademarks as adjectives, which should be used with a generic noun. Examples of correct usage include "SPAM luncheon meat" and "CNN network".
Honorable Mention
Along the same lines, "please RSVP", which can be seen to be redundant once it is realised that RSVP comes from the French phrase répondez s'il vous plaît, which translates as "please respond".The expression "Thank God It's Friday", commonly abbreviated to "T.G.I.F.", is sometimes rendered instead as "T.G.I.F. Friday". Similarly, the popular restaurant chain T.G.I. Friday's is incorrectly referred to as "T.G.I.F. Friday's" on occasion.
The 1970s saw Strategic Arms Limitations Talk between the US and the USSR, aimed at producing a series of Strategic Arms Limitation Treaties, also referred to, respectively, as the SALT talks and the SALT treaties.
DC Comics is also an example, as the "DC" originally stood for Detective Comics.
An office supply company called WB Mason is not really a RAS, but comes close to it because their trucks and many of their products are labeled "Who But W. B. Mason".
See also
- TLA ("three letter abbreviation or acronym")
- List of acronyms and initialisms
- Recursive acronym
- Redundancy
- Pleonasm
- Tautology
- List of redundant expressions
- List of tautological place names
- English usage
References
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