Tag Archives: Acronyms

JJ DID TIE BUCKLE

Interviewer: What phrases are a part of your life that most people would find interesting or strange? 

S: Yes, I’d do it. It’s from my time as a marine. Have you heard the acronym JJ DID TIE BUCKLE?

Interviewer: What does it stand for? 

S: It’s a mnemonic to remember the 14 essential leadership traits. 

Interviewer: Would you be willing to name them?

S: Oh yeah, here we go: Justice, judgment, dependability, initiative, decisiveness. Tact, integrity, enthusiasm, bearing, unselfishness, courage Knowledge Loyalty Endurance

Interviewer: Wow, do you use this a lot in your life?

S: Whenever I need to remind myself of these values. The mnemonic really helps, and it’s a great thing current and past Marines can bond over. God knows we’ve all had to repeat this thing countless times. 

Context: 

The informant is a student at the University of Southern California. Before starting his undergraduate education, he served in the United States Marine Corps. 

Analysis:

This acronym is a marker of group identity. It teaches the members of the group where it is practiced about what values they are expected to internalize. In this form, folklore can communicate moral instructions. The phrase has both formal and informal qualities, which heightens its ability to act as a bonding object. The informant continues to use this acronym during times of need even in his civilian life. Although “JJ DID TIE BUCKLE” comes from a formal institution, it becomes folklore through repeated performance and insider recognition.

Acronyms – OCSA

Text: “OCSA” – “IA,” “MT,” “DM,” “CV,” “CMD,” “DMS,” “VA,” etc.

Context: CS is a 21 year-old college student from Southern California who attended the Orange County School of the Arts in Santa Ana. This school is referred to by its acronym, “OCSA” (pronounced “osha”), and is made up of many different acronyms for the different artistic focuses the school offers. CS discusses being identified by the acronym of the school, as well as one’s artistic focus–acronyms, at this school, become a shorthand for what kind of person an individual is, and what stereotype that person might fulfill. For instance, a Musical Theater (“MT”) student might be seen as highly competitive, whereas a Visual Arts (“VA”) student might be assumed to be much more reserved and introverted than other students. Other acronyms listed above include Integrated Arts (“IA”), Digital Media (“DM”), Classical Voice (“CV”), Commerical Dance (“CMD”), and the Dance, Music, and Science building (the “DMS”).

Analysis: It’s interesting how the proliferation of acronyms at this school led to a kind of stereotyping or role-assigning, almost similar to the clique stereotypes seen at other high schools. CS discussed quizzing substitute teachers on the acronyms of the school, and assimilating quickly to the culture of the school through learning acronyms–she also discussed the panic of not recognizing an acronym that someone identified themselves with. The acronyms, at this school, very much make up a part of student identity and represent being part of an in-group. Not recognizing acronyms or not conforming to the common stereotype of one’s acronym could result in ostracization or judgement from peers, functioning as an extension of the high school social eco-system, rather than something passive outside of it.

Children’s Alternative Acronym for the MCAS – Joke

Nationality: American
Age: 18
Occupation: College student
Residence: Sudbury, Massachusetts
Language: English

Text:

Massachusetts Child Abuse System (MCAS)

Context:

The MCAS is a standardized test in Massachusetts that stands for Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System. The informant, who is from Sudbury, Massachusetts, took it throughout their time at school. Every child is required to take this test in grades 3rd-8th and 10th. It covers English language and math in all years; science in 5th, 8th, and 10th; and civics in 8th. Passing this test in 10th grade is a requirement to graduating and if a child fails, they have to retake it in 11th grade. The informant heard this nickname for the test through previous generations of students at their school. They used this term with their friends as they talked about not liking the test and bonded over a shared dislike of standardized testing. The informant finds this nickname funny and it’s primary use was as a joke.

Analysis:

Children are obviously not going to enjoy a standardized test but the severity of the language chosen reflects just how much they hate it. In this case, kids are slightly exaggerating their anger at a standardized test because they are aware that it isn’t child abuse but it still shows an extreme level of annoyance. Child abuse is a very heavy topic that children are dissuaded from discussing. Children’s interest in a subject generally goes up based on how much they are told to avoid it. Making jokes surrounding a topic is an easy way to access it in a safe way. It allows children to explore a difficult concept without any real risk to themselves or others. They are simultaneously using it as a way to talk about a topic that they aren’t supposed to.

Children want to rebel against adults when they can because adults control almost every aspect of a child’s life. When they have the opportunity to break away from that control, they take it. This isn’t contained to just children, any group that lacks control over their lives looks for ways to subvert the powerful. One way that is commonly used is jokes, such as this. Jokes are a way to go against what you are told to think or feel or, in this case, told to not think or feel. Jokes can be counter hegemonic and allow kids in this case to regain some power in their lives. This acronym translation is an example of how children exaggerate their annoyance with adult control over their lives, rebel against those adults, and use tabooistic topics within jokes as a way of exploring them.

EBIT

Earnings Before Interest in Taxes

Informant is an Accounting Major.

[So what does that (EBIT) mean?] It basically measures a company’s profitability and its calculated as the revenue minus the expenses but it does not include taxes or interest, it’s also known as operating profit. [What’s your relationship to this, this EBIT that you speak of?] (laughter) I am an accounting major, so therefor I have to look at a company’s EBIT and occasionally have to calculate it. It’s unfortunate, really. [Where did you first hear this, was it in a class-?] Yeah it was in my accounting class, BU8380 financial accounting I do NOT recommend anyone take that class, or any other accounting class (laughter). [Will it be that you’ll type it out or see it on a document-] I’ll see it, sometimes when people are talking about it, when it does come up, sometimes it’ll come up when you’re talking about companies profitability, yeah, that’s when it’ll come up. [Is this a term that is used more exclusively by accountants, or if you’re a business major and you hear EBIT you’ll know what someone’s talking about] Business majors should know [should know?] if they payed attention in class (laughter).

-Interview with Informant

The shortening of words is a longstanding practice. Humans are lazy by nature and so as time passes they will say and do things the easiest way they can. Often the way a person says a word changes as the vowel sound becomes the one easiest to make after the previous one in a word. For example the word for is often pronounced as “fer” in modern day, where as fifty years ago no one would have pronounced it that way. “Fer” is easier to say and more convenient than the defined “for”, so that’s how its said. Accountants are no exception to this. All of the different professions also have jargon, and whereas someone who is a Dornsife students probably would have no idea what EBIT was or even what it means once the words are said, a Vertibi student, or at least one that has taken an accounting course, would. The informant voiced a general dislike of their chosen study, which gives insight into the almost mandatory or inevitable nature of folklore. Despite their deep dislike of accounting, the informant cannot help but know the terms used frequently by accountants. Minor forms of folklore are often picked up without realizing or making a conscious effort to do so. When one frequently interacts with something or some group, they are bound to pick up the relevant lore.

Slang about UCLA

Nationality: Pakistani-American
Age: 23
Residence: CA
Performance Date: 3/16/2014
Primary Language: English
Language: Urdu

Context: The informant is a young professional who graduated from UCLA in 2012.  She relays that the acronym for her school had the unofficial meaning of the “University of Cute Little Asians”.

Analysis: A quick search of the UCLA website’s enrollment statistics shows that the ethnic category with the highest enrollment is those who have checked the “Asian/Pacific Islander” box, at 34.8% of total students; the next largest group is white students at 27.8%. The informant herself is not white, nor did she elaborate on whether or not she used the term in her own conversations, but she did confirm that at her time at UCLA, a large portion of the students she saw on a daily basis appeared to be of Asian descent.

The term therefore seems to be a somewhat racist comment on the high population of Asian-descent students at UCLA, combined with the well-worn stereotype that those of East Asian ancestry are shorter in stature than white people, and the fetishization of Asians, particularly Asian women, with the term “cute”.

A somewhat related term I have heard during my time at USC is “University of Spoiled Children”, quite obviously referring to the stereotype of most USC students being rich and white, and a good many of them “legacy” students, meaning an older family member also attended. This view, however distasteful to some, is actually rather true: USC’s student body is 39% white (the next biggest group, 23%, is Asian). And according to an LA Times article, “the percentage of USC students [whose family income is] over $200,000…is more than twice as high as [UCLA]’s”.

I have also heard the much less controversial and more humorous “University of Summer Construction” (but not just summer anymore–I have been a student since the fall of 2010, and there has been some sort of constrution, modification, addition, or repairing going on every single semester along the commonest routes I take across campus).