Re: OT: Saddam Hussein Arrested
 

A good rule of thumb for word origin stories is to ignore any that involve an English acronym before 1940. Acronyms were not in common use in the English language until World War II. Before this they were a curiosity of the academics, and not in use by common men.

Of course, I am no lingual historian, this is just what I've been told. And there are exceptions, like 'ok'.