What does OMEN stand for?

[Lucius]

Re: What does OMEN stand for?

 

Minor point - note that acronyms are pretty much a 20th century invention - before that' date=' they just spelled things out.[/quote']

 

Although the use of acronyms exploded in the 20th century, it is by no means the case that they were invented then. In particular, acronyms, anagrams, and all manner of wordplay have always been used by magicians and occultists.

 

Lucius Alexander

 

The palindromedary recalls the art of gematria

[Ian Mackinder]

Re: What does OMEN stand for?

 

In a continuing spirit of silliness ( ... which I am enjoying greatly - and that disturbs me):

 

Occupational Mentalists' Ethereal Network (sounds kinda like a PBS thing)

 

Obvious Mockery Enrages Nazis

 

Oblong Menhirs Extinguish Negativity

 

... And has anybody else noticed that when the spelling of OMEN is reversed, we get ... NEMO.

[Kevin Schultz]

Re: What does OMEN stand for?

 

Although the use of acronyms exploded in the 20th century, it is by no means the case that they were invented then. In particular, acronyms, anagrams, and all manner of wordplay have always been used by magicians and occultists.

 

Lucius Alexander

 

The palindromedary recalls the art of gematria

 

Were they actual Acronyms (taking the first letters of a series of words and putting them together, like SCUBA), or the opposite - taking a series of letters and trying to find words that fit them?

 

I ask mainly because we're technically doing the second here, rather than the first - and I think the Icthus thing from early Christianity may have been the same. That is, the fish was a symbol of early Christianity, and so they took the word for fish and found a phrase that fit it.

 

Which is not to say that they DIDN'T use acryonyms before the 20th century - I'm not nearly enough of an expert to know. The only real thing I know about it is that S-H-I-T never stood for "ship high in transit", according to an etymology page that I was reading. (It's just the modern prononciation of s-h-i-t-e, the middle english/german word for feces.) That's where I got the "acronyms are a 20th century thing" factoid.