Saturday, April 28, 2007

BACRONYMS AND MY GRANDSON

My grandson is very inquisitive, one day he said, a "Historian" is rarely, if at all, present at the scene so how does he write all that we read in history books, I decided to answer him in my own special way, forming a phrase using only the letters of the word in sequential order, so I told him: -
Hearsay Information, Sifting Thoroughly, Objectively Records Incidents And Narratives. Or maybe: -
He Imagines Something, Twists Others, Records Idiosyncrasies, Assembles Narratives.
Another day he was enquiring about "FAN", the answer I gave was Forceful Air Navigator, he said he was not talking about this FAN, so I told him Forcefully Advertise, Notify, however he was not satisfied yet, so I came up with Fanatical Admirer, Naive. That satisfied him.
His next question was about "Abdomen", the answer I gave was:
Actually Belly, Digestive Organ, Metabolizes Entire Nourishment.
He now came up with "Gymnastics", it took me quite some time to come up with an answer, but finally I got the right connection: -
Gives Your Muscles Noteworthy Adaptability, Stimulus, Thereby Imparting Co-ordination, Strength.
His next question was to explain him about an "Optimist" and "Pessimist", well I had to bring out the difference very clearly, here is what he was told: -
Outcome Predictable, Task Is Manageable, I'll Surely Triumph, and
Predictably, Even Sees Serious Impediments, Machinations, In Small Things.
His next question took me by surprise, it was about "Siesta', well here was the answer I got: -
Spain Itinerary - Enjoy Sleep Through Afternoon.
He next wanted to know about CATASTROPHE - Well no difficulty for me -
Calamity, Accursed Total Annihilation, Startling Thunderbolt, Result Of Particularly Horrendous Event.
His next question too took me by surprise - SCAPEGOAT The answer was however easily available - Someone Clandestinely Accused, Permitting Entire Guilty Offenders Avoid Trap.
He next came up with EARTHQUAKE - Well I was ready with an answer - Explosion Activated Remotely That Has Quivering Underground Almost Knocking Everything.

He was not yet done and came up with STAMPEDE - Well I had to think and finally said - Sudden Tension, Assembled Mob Panics, Everyone Departs Expeditiously.
He again took me by surprise by going for a really very big word - INDIVIDUALISTIC, I had a ready answer - 'I' Normally Dominates In Ventilating Ideas, Dealings, Ususally Abhors Logical Interpretations, Suggestions Treats Imbibing Contempt.
It took him too by surprise but he was not ready to give up and talked of SUPERNATURAL - I decided to go for some hard words - Strictly Unworldly, Perhaps Esoteric, Really Not Attributable To Usual Regimen As Learnt.
He again came up with a 15 letter word - STRAIGHTFORWARD I thought it was time to curb him and so said enough, but he wouldn't take no for an answer, so I obliged - Someone Truthfully Revealing Acrid Intentions, Giving His Thoughts Freeway Or Recording, Without Any Restraint,Decisions.
He was ready for some more so I told him no more but on his insistence I said o.k. One more he came up with "Tradition" and the answer I was ready with was: -
Time-honoured Religious And Dynastic Instructions, Teachings Implemented, Observed Nostalgically.
Well he knew I was fascinated by Acronyms and had been wondering if it would be too difficult to treat ordinary English dictionary words as Acronyms? I tried and found it an interesting exercise, and started coining, what I now call them - BACRONYMS. I now have a collection of over 4,000 words?

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