backronym

Pronounced: BACK-roe-nim, noun

Notes: I’ve run across this word, but couldn’t define it to my satisfaction

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Yesterday’s word

The word bright-line means “providing an unambiguous criterion or guideline – especially in the law

Background / Comments

This word began in courts in the first half of the 1900s; they described whether or not a “bright line” could (or could not be drawn) to make clear-cut distinctions between legal issues. It is speculated that the term may have originated with physicists – the distinct color lines in the light spectrum. It was in the later 1900s that bright-line began to be an adjective, and moved to usage by non-legal types.

First usage

The non-legal adjective began to show up in the 1980s