Welcome to âOff the Clock,â the fortnightly Saturday edition of Timeless & Timely thatâs a fun look at language and words.
This is one for the word nerds out there. Itâs available to our VIPs, who get all of this. Join them:
There are certain words â acronyms, really â that when we use them in conversation donât make as much sense when we stop to think about it.
Not because the acronym itself isnât right, but because of what we pair it with. That is, when we follow an acronym with a word thatâs in the acronym.
If you do this, you might be suffering from RAS Syndrome. Yes, thatâs Redundant Acronym Syndrome syndrome.
How ironic.
Incidentally, RAS syndrome is an autological word: a word that expresses a property that it also possesses. Like âpentasyllabicâ is a five-syllable word.
Anyway, Iâm sure youâve seen common examples of RAS syndrome in the wild. Here are a few:
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