Now, the VOA
Learning English
program, Words and Their Stories.
Different people have
different ways of
saying things – their
own special
expressions. Each week we
tell about some
popular American
expressions.
ways:
maneras; own: propias; each: cada;
What
you are listening to is a call
for help. It is the Morse
code distress
signal S.O.S.
For years, telegraph
operators used
Morse code to communicate
across the country and
around the world.
what: lo
que; call for help: pedido de auxilio; Morse code: (en) código
Morse; distress signal: señal de alarma; for years: durante años;
across: en todo;
A skilled
operator could send and
receive 30 or 40 words a
minute. In the language of
Morse code, the
letter “S” is three short
dots and the letter “O” is
three long dashes.
Put them together
and you have S.O.S.
These sounds represent the
international call for
help because they
are easy to recognize.
Now, it is simply
known as S.O.S.
skilled
operator: operador experimentado; could: podía; a minute: por
minuto; short dots: puntos cortos; long dashes: rayas o guiones
largos; put them together: júntalos; easy to recognize: fácil de
reconocer;
But many
people think that S.O.S. stands
for “Save Our Ship”
or “Save Our Souls”.
It does not. S.O.S. has come to
mean that because of
how we use it –
when we need to be saved,
as when a ship is
sinking.
stands for:
representa, significa; save: salven (a); souls: almas; it does
not: no es así, para nada (en este contexto); has come to mean that:
ha terminado significando eso; because of how we use it: debido a (la
forma en que) lo usamos; to be saved: ser salvados; as when: como
cuando; sinking: hundiéndose;
S.O.S. is an example of a
new, if somewhat
unofficial, word in the
English language. We
call it a
backronym.
A backronym is a combination of
two words:
backward and acronym.
if somewhat:
si bien un tanto; backward and acronym: retro y acrónimo;
An acronym is an
abbreviation, a shorter version
of a long word or
expression. For example, the word
“scuba” is an acronym. It
stands for
Self-Contained
Underwater
Breathing
Apparatus.
But scuba is so
much easier to say!
scuba:
equipo de buceo;
Self-Contained
Underwater
Breathing
Apparatus:
Aparato de Respiración Autónomo;
Backronyms, on the
other hand, are
built in the opposite way.
They are made by
creating a phrase or expression
for an already existing
word or acronym.
on the other
hand: por otra parte; are built: se forman; by creating:
creando;
For example, the United
States Department of
Justice recently
gave new meaning to its
Amber Alert
program. Now, Amber
officially stands for "America's
Missing:
Broadcast
Emergency
Response”.
But the program was originally
named for Amber
Hagerman, a nine-year-old girl
who was kidnapped and
murdered in Texas in 1996.
America's
Missing:
Broadcast
Emergency
Response:
Desaparecidos de Estados Unidos: Difusión
de Respuestas de Emergencias;
kidnapped: secuestrada;
Sometimes,
backronyms come from
outdated language.
Writing “CC” at the end of
a document once
meant "Carbon
Copy”.
Before computers and
email, people
would often make a
carbon copy of a
letter they sent on
official business.
These days we often
send electronic
copies of letters by email,
not carbon copies.
So, “CC” is now a
backronym that means “Courtesy
Copy”.
outdated:
anticuado; carbon copy: copia hecha en papel carbónico; would often
make: a menudo hacía; courtesy copy: copia de cortesía;
Americans
often use
backronyms as jokes. For example,
NASA, the U.S. space
agency, named a
treadmill on the International
Space Station after the
television personality
Stephen Colbert. The
agency created the
name “Combined
Operational
Load-Bearing
External
Resistance
Treadmill”
to spell out the name
COLBERT.
as jokes:
como bromas, chistes; named a treadmill: bautizaron a una máquina de
correr (cinta rodante); load-bearing: de carga; to spell out: para
explicar;
Who says
scientists lack a
sense of humor? Do not
worry if you
have never heard
of backronyms. Many
Americans have not
either. The earliest known
use of "backronym"
appeared in The
Washington Post
in 1983.
scientist
lack: que a los científicos les falta, no tienen; have never heard of:
nunca has oído hablar de; have not either: tampoco (han oído hablar de);
the earliest known use: el uso más antiguo que se conoce; appeared:
apareció;
The newspaper
asked readers to
send in a new word.
Editors picked
Meredith G. Williams as the winner
with her word,
“backronym”, spelled
with or without a “k”. She
defined backronym, as the "same
as an acronym, except that the
words were chosen
to fit the letters".
picked:
seleccionaron a; spelled: deletreada, escrita ortográficamente;
defined: definió; chosen to fit: elegidas para encajar en;
And that brings us to the
end of this
Words and Their
Stories program.
bring us to:
nos lleva, nos dirige, nos trae;
I’m Anna Matteo. Hmmm,
“ANNA” could be a
backronym for “Another
Newscaster
Named
Anna”.
newscaster:
locutor. |