RAS Syndrome

· Stefano Chiodino

The Redundant Acronym Syndrome

I recall a friend complaining about "PAT test", because PAT already stands for Portable Appliance Test, so adding test at the end was redundant.

I've eventually came across the SAR syndrome, which is a self-referential name for this problem.

Other common cases of SAR syndrome are PIN and VIN numbers, ATM machine, HIV virus, LCD display.

Acronyms suffering from SAR syndromes are widely accepted as the redundancy adds clarity.