Is the word mac actually an acronym for macaroni and cheese? No, just a shortening of the full three-word-term. If it mac were an acronym, however, it would be a recursive acronym, or one that refers to itself. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Mac and Macaroni and Cheese”
Hello, you have A Way with Words.
Hello, my name is Lennon. I’m calling from San Diego, California.
Hey, Lennon, what’s going on?
Well, I was having a debate on Facebook, of course, with a buddy of mine about the mac in mac and cheese.
And we’re discussing and we’re wondering if the mac was short for macaroni or if the Mac was an acronym for macaroni and cheese.
I think it’s short for Mac.
He says that he’s been to restaurants before, and on the menu it’s had Mac, just Mac as a side.
Because if Mac is an acronym for macaroni and cheese, calling it Mac and cheese would be redundant.
But if you just refer to it as, I need a side of Mac, or I made a bowl of Kraft Mac, then it would be an acronym.
Kraft Mac, did you say?
Kraft Mac, yeah. The famous KD, the Kraft Dinner.
Oh, I didn’t know that.
Exactly.
The question is, let me summarize this. The question is, is Mac short for macaroni and cheese as a whole, as an acronym, or is Mac short for macaroni and cheese without being an acronym?
Right, exactly.
Like, is Mac short for macaroni, or is M-A-C an acronym for macaroni and cheese?
All right.
Mac has been an abbreviation of macaroni for just the word macaroni since at least the 1930s.
All right?
Macaroni and cheese has been around since the 1840s, and it started, I believe, as an American dish.
Mac is short for macaroni and cheese and short for macaroni, and it is not an acronym for macaroni and cheese.
I know that’s complicated.
Oh, interesting.
Yeah, so M-A-C does not stand for the letters at the beginning of macaroni and cheese.
Okay, got it.
That’s right.
I knew it.
All right.
The thing is, the British tend to call it macaroni cheese without the and, which is interesting, too.
Oh, I didn’t know that.
And a lot of people just call it, give me some mac, and they mean the whole dish macaroni and cheese.
Right, but it’s not an acronym.
It’s not an acronym.
Although people have reinterpreted it as an acronym, and that’s known as a bacronym.
When you have a word that already exists and someone invents the thing that it supposedly stands for or re-assumes after the fact that it stands for something, that’s a backronym.
Interesting.
Okay.
So, Lennon, does this mean that you won an argument?
Is this what’s going on?
I think technically, yes.
I think I’m on board so far.
All right.
One to zero.
Argonyms are awesome.
I love it.
Hey, you know, we should do a show about language.
There’s so much fun stuff to talk about.
Yeah, definitely.
Lennon, thank you very much.
We really appreciate it.
Yeah, I love the show.
You guys are awesome.
Thanks for having me on.
Oh, yeah.
Great to have you.
All right.
Bye, guys.
Bye-bye.
All right.
Bye-bye.
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