is there a word for initials which have become words?

[mimsum]

ds wants to know if words like radar which were originally made up of initials - although I can't for the life of me remember what they are now - are just bog-standard nouns or if there's a special way of describing them (other than words which started out as initials )

I'm quite proud he's displaying such pronounced signs of pedantry at 11

Acronyms.

Aren't they acronyms? [hopeful emoticon]

"What do you feed tham on?"

Yes, they are acronyms.

Radar = Radio Detection and Ranging

does nylon count - New York and London

camra - the real ale thingy

not sure if they're real acronyms

Based on this siteHistory of Nylon

nylon isn't an acronym

my initial thought was acronym, but it doesn't seem quite right - these have evolved into words in their own right - ds is sure there's a separate word for them, but neither of us can think what it is - I told him mumsnet pedants would be sure to know

Everything I have read says these are still acronyms.

However he MAY be thinking of initialisms, for example IBM and NFL, which are generally NOT pronounced as words.

From Wikipedia
"Initialism originally described abbreviations formed from initials, without reference to pronunciation. The word acronym was coined in 1943 by Bell Laboratories for abbreviations pronounced as words, such as NATO, AIDS and Laser. Of the names, acronym is the most frequently used and known; it is widely used to describe any abbreviation formed from initial letters. Others differentiate between the two terms, restricting acronym to pronounceable words formed from components (letters, usually initial, or syllables) of the constituent words, and using initialism or alphabetism for abbreviations pronounced as the names of the individual letters. In the latter usage, examples of proper acronyms would be NATO scuba (self-contained underwater breathing apparatus), and radar (radio detection and ranging), while examples of initialisms would include FBI and HTML"

a-ha! now why didn't I think to look at wikipedia

and yes, he must be getting acronyms confused with initialisms (what a horrible word that is) which is why he's been so adamant that a separate word exists

thanks