1327: wifi Jul 30, 2018

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In addition to 'SOS' [1], there are plenty of words which are neither acronyms or initialisms, but are popularly though to be. Sometimes this happens from in folk etymologies, such as the fabled origins or 'posh' [2], but some words can be misleading. 'Wifi' is neither an acronym nor initialism, but many people believe that it is from the phrase "wireless fidelity". In fact, it just comes from a shortening of 'wireless' and the 'fi' was added on from the pattern of 'hi-fi', but is meaningless. In fairness, 'hifi' in music is short for 'high fidelity', so in a roundabout way, the mistaken etymology of 'wifi' is not so far off.
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