Named for anesthesiologist Dr. Virginia Apgar, the Apgar score — a measure of a newborn’s appearance, pulse, grimace, activity, and respiration — is both an eponym and an acronym. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Apgar Score Origins”
An eponym is a word that derives from the name of a person, right? And an acronym is a word that derives from the first letter of a whole bunch of words, right? And usually you can say it as a word itself, right? And there’s a word that is both.
Oh, really?
Yeah. Apgar.
Oh, Apgar, like the Apgar test?
Yes. From the woman who invented the test they do for newborns to test their development, I guess.
Yes, yes. Virginia Apgar, Dr. Virginia Apgar developed this test that’s called the Apgar test, and it measures appearance, pulse, grimace, activity, and respiration. So it carries her name, but it’s also an acronym.
Oh, I love that.
Isn’t that cool?
It’s kind of a bacronym, though, right?
Kind of.
Yeah, yeah.
Eponymous bacronym.
I like that expression.
Yeah.
It’s my new album.
Yeah.
Isn’t that cool?
APGAR.
Well, she did something well, right?
She did a thing, and the world still uses it, and it’s important.
But it’s funny how simple it is, right?
I know, right?
But it did make a big contribution to neonatal health.
Absolutely.
