RAS syndrome

RAS syndrome (Redundant Acronym Syndromesyndrome) is a humourous term referring to the common mistake of using one of the words which make up an acronym or initialism as well as theabbreviation itself, thus essentially repeating that word. This is a form of pleonasm .

The term is of course an example in itself, but perhaps the most common example is " PIN number", and the phenomenon has also beenlabelled PNS syndrome for "PIN Number Syndromesyndrome". Other examples include " GUI interface"," ISBN number", "Built on NTTechnology" and " HIV virus". A more subtleexample is the phrase "please RSVP ", which can be seen to be redundant once it is realisedthat RSVP comes from the French phrase répondez s'il vous plaît, meaning "please respond".

RAS syndrome is sometimes caused simply by ignorance of the expansion of a particular abreviation - many TLAs and similar jargon are in such common use that theyare commonly used as though they were normal words. At other times, however, it is a clear indication of carelessness on the partof the writer or speaker, and most appearances of "PIN number" probably fall into this category, since the expansion isrelatively well-known. Examples have even been known of bank correspondence using the phrase "Personal Identification Number(PIN) number", a clear example of bad copy editing .

See also

• TLA ("three letter abbreviation")
• List of acronyms andinitialisms

External link

• Redundant Acronym Phrases - a collection of common examples of such phrases.