Source : Free On-Line Dictionary of Computing

recursive acronym
     
         A hackish (and especially {MIT}) tradition is to
        choose acronyms and abbreviations that refer humorously to
        themselves or to other acronyms or abbreviations.  The classic
        examples were two MIT editors called {EINE} ("EINE Is Not
        {Emacs}") and {ZWEI} ("ZWEI Was EINE Initially").  More
        recently, there is a {Scheme} compiler called {LIAR} (Liar
        Imitates Apply Recursively), and {GNU} stands for "GNU's Not
        Unix!" - and a company with the name {CYGNUS}, which expands
        to "Cygnus, Your GNU Support".
     
        See also {mung}.
     
        [{Jargon File}]
     
        (1995-04-28)