Editing Recursive acronym (section)

{{Short description|Acronym whose expansion includes a copy of itself}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2019}}

A '''recursive acronym''' is an [[acronym]] that [[recursion|refers to itself]], and appears most frequently in computer programming. The term was first used in print in 1979 in [[Douglas Hofstadter]]'s book ''[[Gödel, Escher, Bach|Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid]]'', in which Hofstadter invents the acronym GOD, meaning "GOD Over Djinn", to help explain infinite series, and describes it as a recursive acronym.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.math.cornell.edu/~mec/Summer2009/ABjorndahl/extension.html | title = Puzzles and Paradoxes: Infinity in Finite Terms | access-date = 2013-04-23 | archive-date = 15 November 2012 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20121115130941/http://www.math.cornell.edu/~mec/Summer2009/ABjorndahl/extension.html | url-status = live }}</ref> Other references followed,<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.wordspy.com/words/recursiveacronym.asp | title = WordSpy—Recursive Acronym | access-date = 2008-12-18 | archive-date = 8 October 2014 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20141008144546/http://www.wordspy.com/words/recursiveacronym.asp | url-status = dead }}</ref> however the concept was used as early as 1968 in [[John Brunner (novelist)|John Brunner]]'s science fiction novel ''[[Stand on Zanzibar]]''. In the story, the acronym EPT (Education for a Particular Task) later morphed into "Eptification for Particular Task".

Recursive acronyms typically form [[Backronym|backwardly]]: either an existing ordinary acronym is given a new explanation of what the letters stand for, or a name is turned into an acronym by giving the letters an explanation of what they stand for, in each case with the first letter standing recursively for the whole acronym.