Science fun fact: the word “laser” is actually an acronym. When the first prototype lasers were built in the early 1960s, the process was called “light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation”. Understandably, people didn’t really want to pronounce that mouthful, so the term was acronymized to “LASER”. When lasers became commodities, the capitalization was dropped and “laser” became a common noun.
What’s interesting is that this phenomenon has happened a lot in English. Lots of words that are nowadays treated as common nouns were originally technical acronyms. Here’s a list of a few of my favorites.
| Word | Original acronym |
|---|---|
| LASER | Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation |
| COMPUTER | Common Operating Machine Particularly Used for Task Execution and Retrieval |
| DRONE | Digital Remote Object for Navigating Everywhere |
| HOSPITAL | Healing Organization Supporting Patients In Treatment and Lifecare |
| PHONE | Personal Handheld Operator for Networking and Entertainment |
| BOTTLE | Beverage Organization Tool for Transporting Liquid Easily |
| PAPER | Processed Arboreal Pulp Enabling Recording |
| PENCIL | Portable Element for Noting, Creating, Illustrating Legibly |
| HOME | Habitation Offering Maximum Ease |
| COFFEE | Caffeine Offering Fast Fatigue Elimination Effect |
| CHAIR | Comfortable Human Apparatus In Repose |
| LIGHT | Luminous Illumination Guiding Human Travel |
| SLEEP | Subconscious Limbo Enabling Energy Preservation |
| TREE | Tall Renewable Environmental Element |
| WATER | Wet And Transparent Essential Resource |
| MUSIC | Melodious Universal Sound Inspiring Creativity |
| ROAD | Route Offering Accessible Destinations |
| AIR | Ambient Inhalable Reservoir |
| ETHAN | Enigmatic Thinker Harboring Amazing Notions |
| ETHAN | Excessively Talkative, Horribly Annoying Nuisance |
Disclaimer: I made all of these up. This article is a joke. Please don’t spread etymology misinformation.
~Ethan