Origins of the term 'WYSIWYG?

[Fred Cisin]

On Mon, 16 Jan 2017, allison wrote:
> That lead to WYSIWYG pronounced as wizzywhig, from the former what you see is 
> what you get.  There were variations
> as well.

Good point!

The phrase is obviously older, and probably much older than Flip Wilson.

BUT, the acronym is much more recent.  I first heard it as an acronym from 
Apple people, but I don't contest Allison's contention that DEC had 
already been using the acronym.


A phrase needs to get a certain level of recognition, as a phrase rather 
than a description, before it gets adopted as an acronym.

Obvious exceptions include "contrived" or "back" acronyms (bac[k]ronyms), 
where words are chosen to try to fit an acronym that was already chosen.