11 words you probably didn't know were acronyms

We use acronyms all the time, and in some cases, we don't even realize we're using them.

You may not know, for example, that Taser stands for “Thomas A. Swift's Electric Rifle.”

Other examples include “radar” and “snafu.”

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Acronyms show up everywhere in our everyday language, from ASAP to BYOB, JFK to ROY G. BIV.

But sometimes, an acronym is so natural-sounding that we forget it even stands for anything in the first place.

That's certainly the case for Taser — invented in 1974, Taser stands for “Thomas A. Swift's Electric Rifle,” an homage to a fictional character from the early 1900s. The word caught on and eventually gave us the verb “tase,” meaning to fire a Taser at someone.

Read on for 11 words most people have no idea actually stand for something.