Here's what an acronym is, according to m-w.com:

Main Entry: ac·ro·nym
Pronunciation: 'a-kr&-"nim
Function: noun
Etymology: acr- + -onym
Date: 1943
: a word (as NATO, radar, or snafu) formed from the initial letter or letters of each of the successive parts or major parts of a compound term

So, you want to know what, let's say, FWIW means. Then you go here:

http://acronymfinder.com

Just for a hoot, type in your initials and see what comes up. One friend, TDH, got "tall, dark, and handsome."

All I got was "Journal of Reproductive Medicine."

Unfair! Foul!

Another site, with no popups, is

http://acronymsearch.com

On both sites, you can submit an acronym for consideration.

Scientists are so brainy, they have plenty of three-dollar words, so a Big Government entity like NASA (that's an acronym) has its own 14-page Space Mission Acronym List. I, confirmed non-scientist that I am, was afraid to look too far.

Speaking of government entities, just when I'd thought I'd found the IRS's devious list, I was disappointed to discover it belonged to the British Institude of Rural Sciences. Probably wouldn't have understood anything anyway.

Other specialized interests have their lists, too. There are medical lists galore, including one just for doctors and med professional titles. Then there's the Dog Fanciers' Acronym List. I didn't find a feline list, other than the mention of FADD, Feline Attention Deficit Disorder. (Must be endemic to the species.)

Acronyms, as the 1943 date for the word suggests, are a modern invention, or at least, a modern flowering of use, because we're too much in a hurry for the long version. If Reader's Digest boils down the articles and books for us, acronyms must zip our language into tighter bits to speed along the slow communication process.

Now that you know more than you ever wanted to know about acronyms, IOH.

= I'm outta here.