The international morse code distress¹ signal, S.O.S., is another "word" with a false acronymic origin. S.O.S. does not stand for Save Our Souls, Save Our Ship, Stop Other Signals, Sure Of Sinking, or any other phrase.

S.O.S. was chosen as the universal distress signal by the International Radio Telegraph Convention of July 1908 because this combination of letters, three dots followed by three dashes followed by three dots (...---...), was easy to send and easily recognized. The letters themselves are meaningless.

The first recorded mention of the false acronymic origin is in reference to the