First time I heard the word, I thought Enfet was another new disease.

I suppose, like everyone else, I hear a lot of news bulletins these days.

It’s two months or so since we first heard the word “Coronavirus.”

That was followed up by “Covid-19.”

It was last week, I think, I was listening to the news when I heard talk of “Enfet.”

“God, not another name for it,” I thought. Worse still, maybe there’s a new virus called “Enfet.”

But no. Someone had decided that the National Public Health Emergency Team was worthy of an acronym. Enfet.

It’s a bit like Hickwa. It’s the Health Informaton and Quality Authority. And its initals are HIQA. And that series of letters is not pronounced Hickwa. In fact, it’s not actually possible to pronounce.

Anyway, if NPHET is ‘Enfet” and HIQA is “Hickwa,’ why don’t we refer to our electricity supplier as Ezbee. “I hear there’s a threat of a strike at Ezbee.”

During the whole Brexit* thing, did you hear anyone saying that the “Uck is about to leave the You?” (Just in case, that’s the UK leaving the EU.) No. Why not  I wonder.

And call that big country across the Atlantic the U.S. – not Us.

The United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation is called Younesko. Fair enough, its name is a bit of a mouthful.

But there are other bits of the United Nations we don’t turn into acronyms.

Like the Universal Postal Union. YouPoo? Maybe not.

Back here, I don’t hear people call Bord Isacaigh Mhara Bim.

The Commission for Aviation Regulation is not referred to as Car.

Should Horse Racing Ireland be called Hooray!

Inland Fisheries Ireland IFFY?

Now. Here’s the point.

We refer to many organisations by their initials. Like the OECD and UNICEF.

But while UNICEF is an acronym, OECD is an initialism.

This is all brought to you by the Society for Ageing Difficult Decrepit Oldies.
That’s be Saddos.

*(I also hate words made up of two other words like Brexit and Webinar and Staycation. I’m going to run a Crupaign or a Campade against them.)