I was wondering if there was a word to describe acronyms or abbreviations that have been used so often that they become words themselves, or at least that the vast majority of people do not realize that the words are in fact abbreviations.
Examples would be things like:
- LASER: "Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation"
- RADAR: "RAdio Detection And Ranging"
- MODEM: "MOdulator-DEModulator"
- SCUBA: "Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus"
- CARE (Package): "Cooperative for American Remittances to Europe"
- TASER: "Thomas A Swift's Electronic Rifle"
The question came up when reading this other question regarding the use of 'app' to describe a mobile application. 'App' is becoming another example of such an abbreviation which has been used very widely to mean a specific type of application (one for mobile devices) and many people likely do not immediately see the connection anymore.
Best Answer
There is indeed a word and that word is...acronym.
Acronyms are specifically words formed from the initial letters of other words and pronounced as words themselves. Your examples fall into this category.
Quite often, these words aren't written in capitals: laser, for example, tends to be written in lower case, whereas Nato is often written with just a capital N.
A set of initials that doesn't create a new word, eg FBI, UN, BBC, CNN, is called an initialism.
The 'app' example is slightly different. This is an abbreviation where a word has simply been shortened. More established examples include phone, bike, fridge, gym, photo. As far as I'm aware, there's no special word for these.
(I'm writing from a British English perspective.)