I can relate to acronyms and abbreviations much more readily when I actually know how they were derived.

It is **oftn pssble to wrk out wht an abrvtion means** if you know the the root words behind it... but unfortunately `etc` is a standard abbreviation for "**et-cetera**"... and for `usr` I think of **"user**"... but I can't see any correlation.

Most of the terse names in Linux actually make sense when I finally work out the **expanded** original normal words behind them..

Are the origins of these abbreviations lost in the mists of time, or are they "obvious" to all but me?

This question was prompted by a comment I read yesterday, where someone described these things as Linux **incantations** ... I sympathize with him :)...