An acronym is a word formed from the abbreviation of several words, often the first letters of a title or phrase. Strictly speaking, if each letter is not pronounced in the new word it is not an acronym but an initialism. However, Webster, the authority on all matters pertaining to the use of the English language, says that acronym is “a word formed from the initial letters of a multi-word name”. Some acronyms even become accepted as new words – LASER was originally an abbreviation for Light Amplification by the Stimulated Emission of Radiation.

Sometimes titles are created to match an existing word, if only partly. For instance HOMES is the UK Government’s Housing Mobility and Exchange Services. Other acronyms may be specifically marketed, for instance the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills refers to itself as BIS which it pronounces with a voiced ‘s’ to sound like an abbreviation of ‘business’. Some name designers cheat more than others; for instance the European chemicals legislation acronym REACH is an abbreviation of Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and restriction of Chemicals.

In some cases the word formed might have a tenuous link with the full title. The Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive forms an acronym that does sound like a waste product. In the early days it was sometimes called WEEED but this has no resonance for those too young to remember the Flower Pot Men…

Other word associations may be serendipitous – BEES is Building for Environmental and Economic Sustainability; COD does have a Chemical Oxidation Demand and we all know WHO the World Health Organisation is (technically not an acronym as the letters are not pronounced individually but let’s not split High Accuracy Instrumentation Radars).

However while FETA may be best kept refrigerated, neither the Federation of Environmental Trade Associations nor the Fire Extinguishing Trades Association is that worried about how you store your cheese. In fact other people using your acronym can be a problem if you want to be known by your initials, and in many cases companies use an acronym as a logo but spell out their full name as well, so there can be no confusion.

Other organisations may change their name but keep the same acronym, especially if it is internationally recognised. The European Committee of Manufacturers of Domestic Equipment is known as CECED from its original French title, though it now uses Conseil Européen de la Construction d’Appareils (instead of d’Equipements) Domestiques. Another European organisation, CENELEC, is also known internationally by an abbreviation of its French title - Comité Européen de Normalisation Electrotechnique (using three initials and part of the final word to make something that can be pronounced as a word and also suggests its area of interest.).

Other organisations take things a step further. We have to respect the Intellect of the Information Technology, Telecommunications and Electronics Association. And we salute the radio, electrical and television retailers association’s decision to use all lower case letters and call themselves retra (as long as we don’t want to start a sentence with them).

AMDEA used to be an excellent example of an acronym where each initial represented a word in its title and formed a (made-up) word that was easy to pronounce. But originally the Association represented Manufacturers of Domestic Electrical Appliances. Then AMDEA started accepting new members, whose appliances used gas or solid fuel instead of electricity, but we didn’t want to lose the “E” – AMDA seems to lack a certain something – so we changed our name but kept the acronym.

And we could argue (if we wanted to) that the E now stands for Energy, as in Energy-using Products. Or perhaps Electronic, now that just about everything has microchips in it.

And we do like our appliances to be seen as Environmentally-friendly, Easy to use, Ergonomic and, obviously, Essential!