recursive acronym
nounEtymology From recursive + acronym, originating in early hacker culture and later popularized by Douglas Hofstadter.
1
An acronym in which a word (often the first) of the phrase represented by the acronym is the acronym itself.
- I used the odd variable name “tato”, mentioning that it is a recursive acronym standing for “tato (and tato only)”. Using this fact you can expand “tato” any number of times.1983 April, Douglas R. Hofstadter, “Metamagical Themas”, in Scientific American, →ISSN, page 20:
- Related terms
- macronym, RAS syndrome