POTUS, FLOTUS, and SCOTUS

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Patricia. I’m calling from San Diego. How are you today?

We’re doing great. What can we do for you?

My question is about something that I’ve seen in the news, more often online but sometimes in print, that I don’t recall seeing until quite recently. And that’s abbreviations like POTUS and SCOTUS and CODUS and FLOTUS. So the idea of abbreviating, for example, President of the United States to the acronym POTUS. So I looked it up and I found out that it originated as a telegraphic code. But I can’t seem to recall when it became widespread. It seems fairly recent to me.

Yeah, the telegraphic code origins are pretty well known. We can actually find copies of the 1879 manual where these abbreviations were used. Actually, SCOTUS is in there for Supreme Court of the United States. But POTUS isn’t exactly in there. What’s in there is P-O-T for President of the. And then, of course, naturally, you would add U.S. for the United States if you were a telegraph operator. And this code known as the Phillips Code really had this great conciseness about it. It’s kind of a natural shorthand. Supposedly, people could do 50 to 75 words a minute typing or telegraphing, keying in this telegraphic code. In any case, you find as early as 1894, POTUS in print referring to the President of the United States.

Now, the problem with this is we’re not 100% sure whether or not that’s because somebody failed to telescope the abbreviation back out to the full president of the United States or if people are actually saying POTUS on the floor of Congress. I mean, we have speeches transcribed in the newspapers from congressional debates where POTUS is in this transcript in the newspaper. But again, we’re not 100% sure if the guy on the floor actually said POTUS. However, it does show up pretty soon thereafter in a bunch of different newspapers. There was an article, I believe, in the Buffalo Times that got spread around where they talked about the Phillips Code. And they talked about how sometimes newspapers make mistakes and do forget to convert POTUS back into the full president of the United States. That said, it has been insider journalist jargon ever since. So journalists have used this again and again and again, even well until the computer age, even now.

And then at some point, it left journalism and politics because naturally the politicians picked it up as well. And now it’s more widely known and has a lot to do with the increase in media after World War II. At least that’s one of the prevailing theories that as media exploded and there were more kinds of media, not just newspapers, but radio and television. And then later the Internet, we all had a much closer look inside the journalism field, a much closer look inside the field of politics.

Yeah, I’m thinking about the first time I heard FLOTUS, which first lady I was associating that with. Who was it? Maybe Michelle Obama. What do you think? What do you think, Patricia?

Yeah, that’s what I was thinking, is that maybe before that, but I always, I mean, I seem to recall more often just the president. And in some ways, or the first lady, and in some ways it seems unnecessary to me, I mean, this acronym, because it, I mean, president has three syllables. POTUS has two syllables. It doesn’t seem to be a great savings. And somehow I recall that when a caption would say, President signs Bill, I wouldn’t think, oh, what president could that be? It must be. And it seems like an unnecessary extension.

The other thing is, in the telegraphic code, it’s about the number of letters. So five letters versus how many are in the full presidency of the United States is quite a savings. And then the other thing is there’s a register difference here. POTUS is far more informal. This is the, not quite jokey, but it’s the little more lighthearted insider lingo of a profession. Shorthand. And so it’s not the kind of thing that’s going to be on official proclamations. It probably will never be used in any kind of, even declamations from opponents of presidents won’t, they won’t use POTUS. It’s much more informal.

Anyway, this is a great call. I really appreciate your thoughtfulness on this. Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts. Really appreciate it.

Well, thank you. Take care now.

Okay. Bye-bye.

Bye, Patricia. This is a show that celebrates curiosity, and we’d love for you to share yours with us. The number is 877-929-9673, or send us an email. That address is words@waywordradio.org.